Feb Design Contest: The Shortening

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > The Goodmine > Feb Design Contest: The Shortening

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

One word: BattleTech. :smugdog:

# ¿ Jan 27, 2013 18:39

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 13:48

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

Captain_Indigo posted:

I'm a little shaky on how copyright works with elfgames, but I presume writing shortened versions of things would be frowned upon if you were planning on making a profit from them, but probably okay if not. Is the same true of artwork? I'm basically asking do we have to produce all the artwork ourselves, or can we steal stuff from GIS or deviantart or whatever?

Profit is more or less irrelevant.

Rules are not copyrightable (though theoretically patentable), "artistic elements" and "presentation" are. (E.g. every retroclone ever, Monopoly)

Using art assets from other people without their permission is hypothetically grounds for damages (after all, they could have licensed the picture to you!), but in practice, people use things from GIS and DeviantArt for PBP games without major consequences.

Actual rulebooks might be pushing it, though, so I'd highly recommend getting your own art assets.

edit: Also, using other people's assets without paying for them gives a distinctly unfair advantage presentation-wise compared to those acting entirely within the bounds of the law.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2013 13:38

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

(project outline)

RoboSaur: the time war is a tabletop wargame about piloted humanoid robots and dinosaurs battling other robots and dinosaurs. It only requires two dice (six-sided), some paper, and probably some adequate representational tokens and a hexagonal grid playing surface.

Each person controls either a side or an individual pilot (depending on whether or not you are into this "roleplaying" thing), and does battle. Robots and dinosaurs alike fight on a grid of hexagons, which can be filled with various types of terrain, some of which impede movement and fire. Each turn of the game consists of a one-side-at-a-time movement phase (which alternates between sides) and a simultaneously resolved fire phase.

You generate pilots quite simply: pick one thing the pilot is good at, and one thing the pilot is bad at. Things tentatively include moving, shooting, not dying, and paleontology. If you are good at something, you must roll at least three or over on two six-sided dice whenever a check against that skill is called for. If you are bad at something, you must roll at least seven or over. Otherwise, you must roll at least five or over. This target number [TN] can be modified by various factors.

Building robots is more complicated; starting with a basic chassis, you can add armor, weapons, and even DinoEmpathy units (which allow you to control dinosaurs) to your bot.

Each component added has to fit on one of the robot's eleven hit locations, which each have a number of hit points [HP], which represents the amount of damage they can take before they are destroyed. If your robot's central torso is destroyed, both of its legs are disabled, or all the exhaust ports are disabled, the robot is automatically incapacitated, and your pilot must eject to avoid an untimely death. If your robot's cockpit is destroyed, your pilot is automatically killed!

Each component costs a certain amount of SpaceBucks [$] and weighs a certain amount of weight [WT]. If your robot has too many components (and not enough leg actuator power), it will move slower.

Weapons include the versatile but low-performing lasers, the moderately powerful close-range machine guns (which are arbitrarily explosive and power efficient), the heavy and slow, but extremely powerful railguns, and long-range missiles capable of indirect fire.

Dinosaurs are fairly inexpensive units, but they are only capable of melee combat (except for the cybernetically-augmented eponymous RoboSaurs). However, they can scare away even the most powerful opponent with their fierce roars. And if they are freed from the thrall of the controlling DinoEmpathy unit, they run away.

Once the battle is over, you may be able to salvage dinosaurs and robots, to prepare yourself for the next fight.

===

My $50 (USD, not SpaceBucks) should go to The Long Now Foundation, both for the irony and the dire lack of attention to existential risk management in charitable contributions. Never forget the K-Pg extinction!

# ¿ Feb 2, 2013 17:04

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

(ad blurb)

"For all things come from earth, and all things end by becoming earth." - Xenophanes

RoboSaur: the time war is a game of PREHISTORIC/POSTHISTORIC WARFARE. You might even call it PREPOSTHISTORIC. With some dice and paper, and a very brief series of rules, you can...

BUILD a highly customizable robot to battle dinosaurs, other robots, and the unholy fusion of the two known as the RoboSaurs.
CONTROL a legion of ancient beasts to do your bidding.
FIGHT the hordes of all that oppose you, and devour* their corpses.

...all from your tabletop.

_{* metaphorically}

# ¿ Feb 3, 2013 21:07

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

Ulta,

Are you using the default spacing on Google Drive of 1.15 or 1.0 for the total text? Also, Letter or A4?

# ¿ Feb 7, 2013 12:03

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

Milestone 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8KpaAwYYB74tn9UMNQ0Jytoqh0k6Q9cdS8rTZYcZRo/edit?usp=sharing

For some reason, Google Docs is behaving slightly differently than AbiWord, even with what I believe to be are the same settings. It wasn't a big deal, I just wanted to include a SWT table for convenience and showboating.

Numbers are probably unplayable at the moment, I have to do some testing, but theoretically there is enough information to run a complete game. Now I just need to make it look good. (i.e. Not two pages of near-unformatted text)

Also, holy poo poo, dinosaurs are big.

For the shortening 2:

# ¿ Feb 10, 2013 04:33

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

Fuego Fish posted:

Adventure Friends!

Who goes first if there are two Fast characters?

# ¿ Feb 11, 2013 00:12

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

gently caress abiword hosed up the formatting gently caress gently caress.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 00:58

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwbK9vCm5uIbOUxSR3JPNy0zZ2s/edit

Ok, RoboSaur.

edit: Each page is an A6. Sort of messed up the export again.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 01:01

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

FINAL ENTRY REGARDING ROBOSAUR: THE TIME WAR

The PDF of the ruleset / release candidate used for the playtest is located here. You will need to download the file, as Google Docs does not handle images and PDFs very well and the result is a rather blurry preview (at least from my end). Format is one-fourth (portraitwise) of an A0.

Art was sort of impromptu (I wanted them to have feathers). A tip of the hat to Tim Bekaert, Charles R. Knight, Mariana Ruiz, "ДиБгд", "FunkMonk", "Dinoguy2", "Ricce", and "myfavoritedinosaur.com". The tyrannosaurus illustration was slightly modified, and is under the CC-BY-3.0 license.

===

As for the playtest itself, I had two separate live players attempt a match versus each other in a public area. They were given a $400 (SpaceBucks) budget and given the simple scenario objective of destroying the other side. The entire match was not able to be finished due to unforeseen external circumstances, but it was pretty clear that one of the players had won.

The following issues were identified:

A proposal was made regarding the choice of discrete hexes in the game as opposed to a continuous field. This was not implemented during the playtest due to lack of materials, but may simplify any questions about line of sight (as seen below).
No default objective for a scenario is provided in the ruleset.
Dinosaur prices do not indicate the price of sale for players.
Questions were raised as to the status of dinosaurs lost when a DinoEmpathy unit is destroyed. (Is it permanent or just for the battle?)
It is not clear if a component is lost or not when an attempted RoboSaur dies of implant rejection.
There is no indication as to whether melee attacks could be targeted attacks.
Dinosaurs are supposed to use the "standard" base of 4, but this is not explicit.
It is unclear if multiple roar effects "stack" and if so, how.
It is not explicit that you can only move up to your movement points. There is no "minimum 1 hex step".
Line of sight and "hexes crossed" are unclear about travelling over hexagon edges ("diagonally").
Dinosaurs are quite significantly underpriced.

A revised document will be submitted after the contest if there is enough interest.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2013 21:11

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

If anybody needs assistance with last minute playtesting, speak now, and I might be able to arrange something.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 02:21

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

Golden Bee posted:

Anyone free to playtest something tonight? Maybe 3-4 players to give Die Underground a spin. Enter the HEARTH OF THE DREAD KING ! Driven underground by supreme wealth and even more supreme agoraphobia, nobody's seen this guy for 30 years.

Which means his loot is fit for the taking.

Are you still available?

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 02:33

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 13:48

Cardinal Ximenez: Oct 25, 2008; "You could call it heroic responsibility, maybe," Harry Potter said. "Not like the usual sort. It means that whatever happens, no matter what, it's always your fault."

Since the deadline has been sort of moved:

If anyone wants to play RoboSaur: the time war (revised), I will be arranging something, somehow, between 5:00 PM EST and up to past Midnight on March 1st. Probably via MapTools, unless Roll20 supports hex grids. #robosaur will be open in the mean time.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 06:10

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