Stalingrad 2072 - Post-Apocalyptic T-34s

I've converted three Zvezda 1:100 plastic T-34 tank models into something more futuristic/post-apocalyptic for my Stalingrad 2072 project, using bits from Ground Zero Games and 15mm.co.uk.

Here is a work-in-progress:

ACKS: Dark Project - Map Work-in-Progress

I've overlayed a 40x30 hex grid over part of the Thief map. This will give me a rough estimate of what should be in every hex in the ACKS campaign map. So here we go:

From here I will proceed to an ACKS-style campaign hex map.

ACKS: The Dark Project - Setting Concept

How ould a Thief: Dark Project inspired setting for the Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) look like? In a sense, apart from a certain difference in technology and societal trappings, many of the basic concepts of ACKS actually fit very well with the Thief world. The world is full of the relics of the past, both the recent past (the Old City) and the distant past (Karath Din - The Lost City); the forces of Law fight to preserve civilization in face of a never-ending tide of Chaos, while Chaos sneaks through the cracks in the rotten civilized society. Nobles maintain their own men-at-arms, indeed sometimes armies, and the rule of swords reigns rather than the rule of law; beasts and beastment dwell at the thresholds off civilization, raedy to devour the wary.

So how would the camapign look like? Here are ten basic concepts:

1) After Karath Din - the old civilization - fell to an onslaught of Nature, Chaos reigned and men lived as animals in bestial savagery, worshiping the Trickster. But then, 1,600 years ago, the Master Builder fashioned the First Hammer out of stone and wood, and led Humanity in rebellion against the Trickster and the Forces of Chaos. Once free of the barbarian past, the victorious Men built a new Empire out of the ashes of the old, building The City, one of the principal cities of the Empire, on the ruins of Karath Din. Eventually, 700 years ago, the Empire fell due to infighting between its Princes, and city-states arose from its ashes. This is the world of the present - fragmented and, thus, somewhat weak in face of Chaos.

2) The Order of the Hammer (AKA the Hammerites) sternly guards against the forces of Chaos led by the Trickster. Though staunch and sometimes fanatic in their struggle against Chaos, the Order of the Hammer is now quite ossified and concerned with tradition and with stern punishment of criminals and heretics more than with actual struggle against the Trickster. However, the Hammerites hold a significant military might and also benefits from its technological mastery. Lawful Clerics and Paladins are all Hammerites (probably using slightly different classes than in the core rulebook, more similar to Dwarven Craftpriests).

3) Civilization, as a whole, is crumbling under the onslaught of Chaos. Fragmented into wrring city-states, the civilized lands are besiged by wilderness and chaos on all sides. Chaos also seeps through the cracks of civilization and festers in its rotten heart.There are many Chaotic gods, but chief amongst them is the Trickster, also known as the Woodsy Lord. Chaos stands for the savagery of untamed nature, for bestial inhumanity. Where Law is not present in force, Chaos invades, be that vines undermining unattended buildings or the dead rising in vile mockery of the Builder's humanity. Pagans work to bring about the reign of the Woodsy Lord and his Beastesses and Nymphs, and the end of civilizaed life. Chaotic priests will probably use a different class than Cleric (maybe the Shaman from the ACKs Player's Companion?).

4) The Keepers are True Neutral and belive that either extreme, be that of Law or of Chaos, is a threat to humanity. As long as Balance is kept, humanity flourishes. If the scales are tipped, then the Keepers intervene to restore Balance. Keepers probably use the Thief and Assassin classes, but some might use something more along the lines of a Nightblade.

5) There are two main groups of magic-users in and around the City. The first is the Brotherhood of the Hand, a mostly-Neutral mage guild; the Brotherhood follows an Elementalist tradition, and most of its mages take the Elementalist proficiency; while mighty, they usually keep to themselves. The second is Necromancy - quasi-Chaotic meddling in life and death, usually to call forth undead and unnaturaly prolong the Necromancer's life. While illegal, and punishable by death if caught by the Hammers, they thrive inside the cracks of civilization. They usually take the Black Lore of Karath Din (AKA Black Lore of Zahar) as their first proficiency. Ironically, both traditions originate from the lost civilization of Karath Din.

6) The Fey frolick in the wilds. There are two kinds of Fey - the Seelie Court (who are Neutral) and the Unseelie Court (who are Chaotic). Both have a habit of kidnapping human babies from their cribs and replacing them with Fey babies. These Changelings - Fey raised by human parents - are represented by the various Elf classes in ACKS and the Players' Companion. Their social status is quite low in the City, and some of the more fanatical Hammerites hate them (and they get -2 to Reaction and Loyalty rolls from Lawful humans if their Elven origion is known), but they have mighty magicks at their disposal.

7) While some elements of the City might seem modern, on the most basic level this is a profoundly feudal society. Lords - from the lowliest noble to the mightiest Earl (the term I use instead of "Baron" for the City's ruler to avoid confusion with other noble ranks) - have the right to bear arms in public and raise their own men-at-arms and even armies if they so desire. The Order of teh Hammer is also heavily armed. And so are the various criminals in the City, usually posing as men-at-arms of various "nobles" of the type of Ramirez.

8) The City's underworld is ruled by the Wardens - mighty crime-lords, usually holding a formal noble title of one kind or another, who fight each other for their share of loot. Independent thieves might encounter trouble from the Guilds and Wardens who, naturally enough, do not like competition by independents.

9) Some areas of technology are far more advanced than in 'vanilla' ACKS, though most follow the ACKS norms. Steam-powered generators power elevators, pumps and forges, as well as electric lights. These technological comforts, however, are relatively expensive, so even the average noble - or, indeed, the current-day Hammer cathedral - uses torches instead of electric lights on many occasions. Electric alarm systems are also common, though often primitive and relatively easy to tamper with.

10) Beasts of all kinds, eincluding beast-men, roam the wilds and even invade the less-well-guarded parts of civilization. The most common are Giant Spiders, Cray-Men and Burricks. In wilder areas, where Chaos holds sway, civilization is besiged by Spider-Beasts, Bug-Beasts, Snake-Beasts, Rat-Men (who are NOT lycanthropes in this world but rather Beastment who replace Orcs), Goblyns, Bugbears, Ogres, Ape-Men and Tree-Beasts. Undead abound in all Sinkholes of Chaos, even inside civilization, and include Zombies, Greater Zombies (who are more similar to the Zombies in Thief: Dark Project), Haunts (powerful undead swordsmen and archers), Fire-Shadows, Apparitions and Ghouls.

What do you all think of this?

ACKS: The Dark Project - Mapping Inspiration

By the way I found a resource for inspiration for my campaign map:

Thief World Map Project

Their "city region" map provided above is, on a rough estimate, about the size of an ACKS Campaign Map. How did I calculate this? The City is almost directly to the north from Cyric, and the site says that Cyric is 12 days of foot travel from the City. A day of foot travel by a lightly encumbered person on a road in ACKS is about 24 miles (actually 27 miles, but let's say that it's about 24 miles for the sake of simplicity, factoring in more rest periods and taking care to avoid highwaymen). So, Cyric is 12 24-mile hexes to the south of The City. That's about one quarter to one third of the entire map length from north to south, so the map is about 36-48 hexes long.Quite similar to an ACKS Campaign Map!

ACKS: The Dark Project - Introduction

One of my favourite computer games ever was, and still is, Thief: The Dark Project. This game was highly immersive and evocative with advanced AI for its time and what was then a relatively new approach to first-person gaming: stealth instead of blasting your way around to the objective. But the best thing about Thief: The Dark Project, I'd say, was not its game mechanics per se but its setting.

The game was set in a huge city, medieval in most aspects, but with certain steampunk elements (such as complex pumps, turbines, elevators and even electric lights). Inside this setting, mundane for the most part on its surface, were several strong fantasy elements as well - undead, elementals, mages, giant lizards (Burricks), giant spiders, spellcasting clerics, shapechanging wood nymphs - and a mighty Chaotic god as the antagonist!

Technology and society were, for the most part, somewhere between medieval and Renaissance - and combatants wore leather chainmail and wielded swords, warhammers, maces and bows, with no firearms to be seen (although some gunpowder did exist in the game in the form of clockwork mines and explosive barrels). Nobles lorded over the toiling masses and lived in fancy manors - complete with large amounts of lootable treasure; the church - the Order of the Hammer - had immense power and an army of their own (as well as a technological advantage over everyone else); and each and every faction had its own men-at-arms, just like in the olde days.

The sequel, Thief: The Metal Age, was far more Victorian in tone and flavour, turning towards a more 'proper' Steampunk setting rather than Thief: The Dark Project's steam-medievalism; still, guards brandish swords, maces, bows and crossbows, but the scenery is far more modern in look and feel. Personally I liked Thief: The Dark Project's feel and atmosphere better...

The last game so far in the Thief series, Thief: Deadly Shadows, returned to the first game's medieval feel and even reduced the amount of electric lights in the City. While it suffered from relatively small areas with load screens in between, it was still a good game. However, many of Thief: The Dark Project's cool fantasy elements, namely Burricks, Chaos beasts and Craymen, were absent and replaced by fish-men and possessed insane-asylum inmates.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I think that the world of Thief: The Dark Project can be a mighty source of inspiration for tabletop fantasy RPG games. Namely, I intend to base the setting of my next Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) on the world of Thief!

There will be modifications, of course, as I want to optimize the setting for fantasy adventures and fit it to the ACKS rules, as well as inject some new ideas into it. But the main ideas of Thief will fit well with the ACKS rules, I think, especially since you even have rules for running a thieves' guild in ACKS!

Stay tuned for more in the coming days!

WH40K - Building an Imperial Guard Army

Turns out that the vast majority of the local gaming community here in Israel ("vast" being a relative term - the entire community has less than 100 wargamers in the entire country) play either Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40,000 or WarMachine/Hordes. A few also play Epic: Armageddon and one or two play Infinity. No historical wargamers here - apparently they had enough ultramodern military experience in the IDF (which is a conscript army for the most part).

So, since I want to have the maximum number of opponents, I'd rather play some WH40K or Epic. Both are cool games!

I'm starting an Imperial Guard force. I really like their fluff - ordinary men and women facing untold alien and demonic horrors with nothing but lasguns and flak-vests. Very heroic! Plus, I get to play with a lot of tanks and artillery. Above you can see my partially-assembled regular Guardsmen. I've built them with Cadian legs and chests (and sometimes arms) and Catachan heads (and sometimes arms) for a look resembling the Colonial Marines from the film Aliens (AKA Alien 2).

Here is a Tentative 495pts list for this force:

HQ:
CCS, 70pts - Role: Command and Sniper support (sits back and commands/shoots)
Company Commander

Veteran w/VOX
3 Veterans w/Sniper Rifles

TROOPS A: Infantry Platoon
PCS, 105pts - Role: Seizing far objectives
Platoon Commander
Guardsman w/Vox
3 Guardsmen with Flamers
Chimera

Infantry 'Blob' (Squads A+B), 150pts - Role: Seizing near objectives, anti-infantry
2 Sergeants
Commissar
Guardsman w/Vox
2 Guardsmen w/Grenade Launchers
15 Guardsmen

TROOPS B: Veteran Squad, 130pts - Role: AT Support
Veteran Sergeant
Veteran w/Vox
3 Veterans w/Plasma
Autocannon Team
3 Veterans

ELITE: Ratling Squad, 40pts - Role: Snipers
4 Ratlings

Expanding the Blog

I've made a decision - instead of posting my D&D, Traveller and wargaming ideas in separate blogs, I'll post all of them here in one blog, for maximum richness of content. So welcome to the Space Cockroach's full-spectrum gaming blog!