Savage Worlds: Olympian Breed Pre-Gens Review and some Greek Paper Figures

Savage Worlds Olympian Breed Pre-Gens Review ...and some Greek Paper Figures

Pre-Gen Characters for play or reference
by Palewolf Publishing

Price: FREE
Pages: 5

Uses/Requires:
1. Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
2. Savage Worlds Super powers Companion
3. Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion
4. Olympian Breed - Setting Primer & Character Creation Guide
5. Olympian Breed: Act One

See my previous review of #4 above.

Slowly the pieces of the Olympian Breed setting are coming out. On my first review of their setting I mentioned the necessity of Pregens for getting started. I'm sure this was in the works and am glad it's out. This review is a few weeks late but visit Palewolf's web site, specifically their blog post on Ancient Greek History for some great resources to help push the development of a fully realized game. I'm a visually inspired person so, if you're like me, the trailer for the upcoming Wrath of the Titans should help get your creative juices going.

I needed one more thing to get the gaming going: figures. Being the visual guy that I am, printing out some paper figures really helped bring life to my ideas. Arion Games has some paper figures for $3.  I recommend the GREEKS (ARG027) set to start.  It gave me 28mm Hercules,  Hoplite, Amazon, Man, Princess, Woman, Hero, Philosopher, General, Soldiers, and...coolest of cool: a Minotaur, Pegasus, and Hydra. All in both tri-fold and (my favorite) A-frame.  They aren't the flat cartoon type figures I enjoy but detailed 3d poser-type figures. Very nicely done! Now I have a good starting set to get some OB butt kicking adventures before Wrath of the Titans comes out.

If you want an example of some more of their figures, you can go to their blog entry here.


Just for a little extra visual , I printed out the free Lord Zsezse Works: Lost Map #10 desert map from this week's Drive Thru RPG newsletter and put my Greek paper figures on. A Minotaur pursuing Hercules and a Greek Hoplite. Fifteen minutes work and I've got a game board and figures. Now that's my idea of a time-crunched gamer getting into a new setting fast. The actual full map set is here.

Until next time...keep it savage!

PS: Thanks Vikki Felde for visiting our blog. We look forward to your up and coming additions to the world of Olympian Breed.

Framework Update 1

I thought I'd post a few screen shots of my work on the new framework so you get an idea of what I'm doing. Rather than 6 (or 7 or 8) setting library tokens, I've collapsed this down to two for the new framework: Lib:Rules and Lib:Setting.

Lib:Rules contains all the macro code while Lib:Setting contains all the data. In theory, you can swap setting tokens with ease. You just point the Rules token to it for data.

The heart of the Setting token is a set of lists containing all the stuff needed by the rules. This is where you'll add the names for things like Arcane Backgrounds, Skills, Derived Stats, Edges, and Hindrances. If you don't need a particular skill, like Guts, you simply remove it from the list and the code will ignore it from that point forward.

The screenshot below shows the results of the Manage Setting macro.

Another goal of this framework is to allow for internationalization. I do this through the Languages and Labels tab. In it you can pick a language and then edit the text to suit the needs of your games. I did this mostly for the German Savages that use my framework but I hope others will make use of it as well.

To change the language you simply select it from the dropdown. To edit the text you click on the label name which brings up a dialog to let you edit the translated text. Note you can also use this to alter the displayed English text as well. All text on the screen goes through this lookup regardless of language.

I can see already I'm going to need to code a utility to import labels from one Lib:Rules token to another.

After you have the lists defined, you can start configuring the setting under the Configuration tab.

• Races, Monstrous Abilities, Edges and Hindrances all work the same by adding, replacing, or modifying traits and stats defined on the lists page. 
• Derived Stats are those called out in the Savage Worlds rule set for things like Toughness, Charisma, and Parry. 
• Other Stats include things that are modified by Edges, Hindrances, and Races but fall outside other stats (like Soak roll modifiers). 
• Arcane Backgrounds have their own set of screens to configure power point usage, powers, skill name, initial power points, and initial powers. 

To configure these items, I've created Wizards to ease data entry. Below is a simple example from Derived Stats. Items with a formula ignore the default. Formulas must follow a specific format. In the case below, Parry and Toughness get the Die Num (i.e. 4 for a four sided die) of a trait and perform some math on it.

That's all for now. I'll post more as time allows.

The Blog Post You Should Never Publish

I know you should never post explaining why you haven't been posting. Still, I've never let common sense stand in the way of publication.

I've been hard at work creating a new Savage Worlds framework for MapTool. The effort has several goals including:

1. Internationalization - GM can change the labels on the screens so non-English speakers can use the framework.
2. Full integration of race, edges, hindrances, and monstrous abilities on trait rolls. You have to define these for the setting but it works really well.
3. Custom definitions of arcane backgrounds. I want something that handles Hellfrost, Solomon Kane, Realms of C'thulhu, Necessary Evil, the Companions (Fantasy, Super Powers, Horror) with ease.
4. Wizard-based configuration to help with setup.
5. Setting based rather than character sheet based - the last framework started and stayed centered around the character sheet. The new one is centered around the setting with the character sheet as one of the products.
6. Multiple deck support - the new framework will handle any number of adventure and action decks.
7. Group movement and initiative
8. Gadgets, equipment, and artifacts - probably one of the biggest changes is gear definition. Rather than have 4 types of gear (weapon, armor, ammo, and other) all gear will be configured the same  where you assign different aspects to the gear. One of the new aspects will be powers. This will help greatly with Weird Science gadgets. 
9. and much, much more.

So I'll be gone for a bit, probably a few months. Derek B will be filling in with some reviews and other tidbits. I'll try to get some posts up showing the new framework as well.

Thanks for all your support.

Review: Olympian Breed a Savage Setting

Olympian Breed
Starter Game Reference
by Palewolf Publishing

Price: FREE
Pages: 8

Uses/Requires:
1. Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
2. Savage Worlds Super powers Companion
3. Savage Worlds Fantasy Compaion

Why Ancient Greece?: The kick butt ancients have been creeping back into our movie consciousness for a while. Good move on the part of Palewolf to recognize this. Zack Snyder's 300, lead by Gerald Butler's King Leonidas in 2007 was brutally amazing. The kid's movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Clash of the Titan's remake in 2010 as well as the recent epic Immortals have all been great visual treats for the rpg minded. Then, this weekend, Time Bandits was on and Sean Connery's King Agamemnon got dinged and battered by the hokiest Minotaur seen on screen...ever (but you gotta love Terry Gilliam). So, last week when Pinnacle featured Olympian Breed by their latest licensee: Palewolf Publishing, I was interested. It might be fun to stir up the old Greek ancients genre.

Palewolf Publishing's Pitch: SAVE THE WORLD. IT'S YOUR BIRTHRIGHT.  Olympian Breed adventures take place in the age of heroes before Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey. You are transported to a fantastic era when demigods roamed the world slaying horrifying titans and fulfilling ominous prophecies. Within these tales, you explore all the classic themes that are so prevalent in Greek mythology such as heroism, faith, love, tragedy, generosity, and sacrifice. This is an age of myth, before the beginning of recorded Greek history, where great heroes clashed against the darkest of terrors. Throughout the game, the players fight to overcome their own human trappings and prove to be more than just mere mortals. They also discover that their divine parents are far more human than they were lead to believe.

In this game, you play one of these great demigod heroes, born half human and half god. Do you know the truth about your blood? Was it your mother or father that imparted their divine heritage to you? Is your divine parent aware of you or are you just one of their many abandoned progeny? Maybe the gods do know about you and perhaps, worse yet, they “have a plan for you”. Will your demigod seek immortality through brave deeds or through guile? Will you choose to embrace your destiny or let the gods push you to your fate? And when your time is done, will you have left your mark on the world and risen above your mortal station? Will your name be remembered and as everlasting as the Olympians themselves?

What I liked:
The idea of 8 pages as an intro was enticing. You get a nice cover, an excellent map, a brief outline of the OB world and heroes, a new edge (Blessing of the Gods) and hindrance (Destiny), a page of equipment, a set of 11 questions to drive your character background and a 2 page Character Sheet.

Apart from the 8 pages, I also discovered that this is the culmination of a husband and wife's dream.  Their web site is up, they have a bare bones intro and a 1st adventure in the Drive Thru RPG store. Congrats!


Some Essentials Were Missing:
With the mental visuals of King Leonidas, Theseus, and even (Sam Worthington's) Perseus whirling in my head, I was looking for something to actually get me started. I didn't see enough to get that start without a lot of work on my part. I would expect something that gives you Act Zero: Archelaos first battle. Something that demonstrates a fully developed first character that has navigated using the SWD, SWFC, and SWSC in the unique way that Palewolf has discovered in their creation of this setting. Also, some example of how OB's game play would proceed, pre-generated characters & foes, and a simple but fun first adventure. My assumption is you need the Olympian Breed Act One: A Gathering of Heroes to actually do anything. It appears to be 6 pages and while $2.99 isn't much to quibble about, it doesn't seem that 6 pages would give me much for my money given what's missing from the freebie. I really appreciate keeping things brief but a good example of brief but complete would be Apathy Game's: Temporal Probability Agency. They have a free first adventure download that extensively covers the basics.

Last Words:
I encourage Palewolf to keep living the dream and continue to embrace the concise approach for "time crunched gamers" that we here at the Troll need.  Learn from others who have gone before and provide more of what will get people jumping into a Savaged Ancient Greece. I'm surprised that the Pinnacle staff didn't reccommend pre-gens, NPCs, and a simple adventure. My guess is all these things are coming and I look forward to them.

Google Hangouts with Extras for RPG

Friday night I played Warrior, Rogue, and Mage from Stargazer Games. game with my longtime online gamers I met through MapTool. As always, we had a great time.

Matt Jackson - cartographer, book cover designer, and the master of 20,000 rules-light games - wanted to try a Google Hangout with Extras for maps, character sheets, and handouts. I'm a longtime MapTool fan and serve on the RPTools.net staff so I suspect I'm more than a little biased.

MapTool does all of those functions very well and was custom designed with gamers in mind. Still, I tried to go in with an open mind. I suspect the two glasses of wine I had beforehand helped. What follows are the Good, the Bad, and the Frustrating about Google Hangouts for RPGs.

The Good.

This is a web application and so needs no client software or special plug-ins to play. As long as you have a Google+ account you have access. I suppose some would consider forcing you to use Google+ is an overall minus but I suspect those people are still trying to figure out a way to get Facebook usable for RPGs.

Google Hangouts with Extras has great integration with Google Docs. You can store documents, spreadsheets, pdfs, etc. in Google docs and share them during the game. You can share only with certain members or open an entire folder up for the group to use.

Google Sketchpad integration is nice as well. Sketchpad is an drawing/image sharing program that lets everyone in the Hangout draw or drop images onto a common canvas. This was the way we shared maps and moved our tokens around the maps.

You can open both Sketchpad and Docs in a separate tab or window if you need multiple items open at once.

The new Hangouts has full text, voice, and video chat capabilities. You don't need a third party product. The picture and voice quality were both good. The text chat comes in handy for sharing AFKs and BRBs as well as typing out quips versus saying them.

The Bad

There is no built in die roller. I hear there are online sites that let players share dice rolls but I haven't found a good one yet. During the game we rolled actual dice and shared the result via the voice chat. While I trust the guys I game with, others may not be so lucky. Isn't it time all text chat programs came with built in die rollers? Let's start an occupy Google campaign (via hangouts) until we get it.

The Sketchpad functionality is fairly limited. It does OK and is good for getting a point across but it really isn't built for gaming. The objects you place on the screen don't have a way of annotating ownership. Sketchpad only tells you who has the object selected. One of the major problems is that the map is an object just like the tokens. So anyone can grab and move it around. Adding layers to Sketchpad would go a long way to making it more usable for Gaming. Player tokens could go on one layer and background objects on another. Let's start an occupy Google campaign (via hangouts) until we get it.

The Frustrating

• It's not MapTool, a product designed for gaming. It's a presentation/discussion tool. I spent a lot of extra clicks doing what comes easy in MapTool.
• There wasn't an easy way to zoom around the map.
• The accidental map movement drove me nuts when people selected the map rather than their token.
• Images could not be named and had no owner. It was hard telling who was who and what they were doing.
• You quickly run out of screen real estate for viewing different documents and images.

Conclusion

A Google Hangout is what it is: a method of sharing documents with chat and whiteboard built in. You can make due if you don't expect a lot from it. I hope they someday publish an API for Hangouts that VTTs connect into so you can let VTTs do what they do well and Hangouts do what they do well.

Still, if your mapping needs aren't large and you do more storytelling than combat, Hangouts may be the right gaming tool for you.

The Space 1889 Ship Builder

As teased earlier, Savage Troll Publications is proud to present the SPACE:1889 - Red Sands Cloudship, Gunboat, and Ether Ship builder for the Savage Worlds rule system.

You can download the trial version and give it a try. The link is to a zip file which must be extracted to your PC or Mac. The zip contains two Excel spreadsheets, one containing macros the other does not, along with 21 ship images from the original SPACE:1889 material.

One word of warning, Excel will complain to high heaven that there are macros that might be harmful to your computer. This is a standard warning it gives for any spreadsheet you download from the Internet. The macros it complains about are buttons on the spreadsheet that reset the data, print the first page, take you to the Weapons page and back, and one that places a ship's image on the spreadsheet.

Instructions for the spreadsheet can be found on the new Savage Tools page on this blog.

Good luck and let us know if you find any errors.

Included in the download are the ships from Sky Galleons of Mars. It's a great supplement I recommend purchasing.

If you just want the ship images for Map Tool tokens, you can download them without the spreadsheet.

Kindle Fire Apps for the Gamer

I use my Kindle Fire a great deal for gaming and writing research. It's handy form factor makes it extremely portable and the ability to load my PDFs onto the device means my gaming library is with me where ever I go. The long battery life allows me to use it for days between charging and my Verso leather(ish) cover that makes the Fire look like a leather-bound book. For some reason I like that a lot.  

Currently I'm wading through the new chase rules in the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition and making notes along the way for a future blog article. Along the way I decided it to document the Android applications I use daily so other gamers considering a Fire purchase could gain from my experience.

My first and foremost favorite application is ezPDF Reader Pro by Unidocs Inc. The program makes great use of screen real estate and navigation is a breeze. 

The File Management screen allows you to view a list of your PDFs you've sent to your Kindle, those you've downloaded, or you can open a PDF directly from the web. I use the 'Recently Viewed' option most often because I usually reference more than one PDF for research. 

Thus far, ezPDF does the best job of reading PDFs. The default Kindle viewer displays PDFs and that's about it. If you're going to make your Kindle into a gaming book reader, you need much more. The ezPDF view behaves like a standard Kindle reader when in full screen mode complete with page flipping animation. Full page is normally too small to read unless the Kindle is sidways.

When you double tap a text column, it zooms so the column fills the screen. After that, tapping either side of the screen scrolls to the next or previous text column. Touching the top or bottom of the screen scrolls to the top or bottom of the page. All this makes for a great navigation experience although it's a little frustrating at first.

Selecting text is easy. You simply hold down on a word and a selection highlighter appears allowing you to select all the text you want. Once your selection is complete, you can 

• Copy - saves the selected text to clipboard to be used later
• Search document for other occurrences of the selected passage
• Web - sends the selected text to Google search
• Send - sends the selected text to other applications like Facebook, Twitter, Email, or Evernote
• ColorDict - sends the selected text to ColorDict application (not available on Kindle but should be there for other android devices)
• Highlight, strike through, or underline text
• Add sticky note
• Draw figures, freehand, or text boxes on the document

The ezPDF menu appears with a single tap to the center of the screen. From the menu you can

• Search
• Bring up the outline for quick navigation between book sections
• Goto or add a bookmark
• Browser like navigation to visit previous pages if you're jumping around in the document
• Jump to a page number
• Set the zoom %
• Export/Import/List Annotations
• Voice reading to have your Kindle read to you
• Auto flipping to have the Kindle automatically navigate through the PDF
• Night/Day mode which inverts the colors light to dark or dark to light
• Save As to save a copy of your PDF

Next on my Must Have list is Evernote. This free application makes note taking easy and puts notes on the cloud for access on all android devices and any web browser. I use Evernote as I'm reading game manuals to save off interesting tidbits for later. My current article involving chase rules has me back and forth between the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition and the Space:1889 - Red Sands setting rules trying to figure out the best way to handle Sky Galleons combat. Since the chase rules have changed, keeping track of all the information was becoming difficult. 

Evernote to the rescue. I cut and paste the relevant sections from ezPDF into Evernote giving me one place to absorb the information. What's more, you can share documents with other Evernote users and all your notes are automatically on all your Evernote devices. It comes in very handy. 

You can also embed media, such as photos and videos, into your notes. 

Another app from the Evernote folks is Skitch. The application lets you rapidly annotate photos and images the share them with others. It's simple functionality but incredibly useful for passing maps and other graphics back and forth. 

You can add arrows, boxes, text, and freehand drawings to your graphic and then share them via email, Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, or other apps. 

Skitch is easy, fun, and I spend too much time in it. 

Sketchbook Pro is last on my list Must Haves. Sketchbook is a great little drawing program for rapidly putting together maps or other graphics. It's something of a mini-GIMP or Photoshop with a wide variety of brushes and other tools to make drawing easy. 

You can confine drawing to squares, circles, lines, or use freehand. There are 45 brushes to choose from with variable radii and opacity. It has a mirroring mode so one side of the drawing duplicates the other. Best of all it has 6 layers which allow you to draw on different, overlaid canvases. The three transformation tools - rotate, move, and scale - are simple and intuitive. 

For a quick drawing, nothing beats Sketchbook. What's more, you can always save your drawing then annotate in Skitch and save in Evernote. It makes for a powerful combination. The image below took me less than five minutes to create and share. I drew the image in Sketchbook, annotated in Skitch, and saved to Evernote as well as shared to Twitter.

Please forgive the crudity of the model. I was in a hurry.

I don't edit Microsoft Office documents on my Kindle often but when I do I use QuickOffice Pro. It is your standard office suite with a word processor, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, and PDF viewer. The nice thing about QuickOffice is its ability to work from a variety of cloud sources such as Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, Catch, Egnyte, Huddle, Box, SugarSync, and MobileMe.

The product works with all  recent versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.  While this probably doesn't fall into the Must Have category, I do use it often for game-related materials.