UPDATE 1/22/2023. These files are now available at BoardGameGeek and already have 22 downloads for a 40+ year old game.
Last night, I received an email from The Maverick, the webmaster of dwarfstar.brainiac.com. He granted me permission to post my Star Smuggler tiles, suggesting Boardgamegeek as the best host.
To be honest, I don't like hosting files myself, so I gave it a shot. There seems to be a turnaround process, so they aren't there yet. So, here is the link to a zip file. (Edit- I hate hosting my own files as I can't tell how many are downloaded from Google Drive.)
The original tiles had a strange quirk. They were labeled A-J with Asteroids. To create planets, you needed to match up two tiles. Invariably, one of those tiles needed to be upside down. In studying them, there was no permutation where you could have left and right tiles labeled A-J without having several flipped. You'd need a left-hand set and a right-hand set.
Annoying.
I flipped each tile so that you don't have to have one upside down. This required relabeling all of the text so you didn't have one tile printed in the reverse.
The process was super annoying, but I got it done.
Just a reminder, I only have permission to post a link to these files. That is the extent of my ownership. Please download for personal use only and do not redistribute. I've been waiting a long time for this, please don't make me take it down.
First, I would like to thank Patrick for following me over on Ko-Fi. Following me over there is completely free and you'll pick up some insight into what I am working on.
This evening, I'm working on a map for my upcoming project. I decided to start big and get smaller. This map of the capital is 50 feet per hex. In this view, you probably can't see the hexes.
Map made using Worldographertm
Obviously, the capital is on the coast and is desperately in need of a name. Worldographer has the ability to generate maps via a seed process and some pretty cool tweaks you can select at the beginning. It will happily layout streets, drop in houses and businesses based on population plus a few other things like foliage.
To make the process more manageable, I cut the population to 1000 so the area is sparse. As I work through the city, I'll add buildings in neighborhoods flavored by the underlying terrain.
In this campaign setting, the city has been at peace for decades. They have gotten a bit sloppy with the trees and buildings close to the walls. I plan to remove a lot of the trees as I work, but there needs to be a balance between clearcut areas, the possibility of sloppy care, and being visually pleasing.
This is a fortified city with the majority of people living outside the walls. Inside, there are garrison houses, towers, and a citadel for defense. I am picturing 40-foot tall walls, and 50-60 foot tall towers. The citadel was built first, before the city. It is ill-suited for its location as the citadel walls are only 30 feet tall. The central tower is 50 feet tall, which is not high enough to see over the walls.
But the citadel has a magical defense.
This is a view of the southern gate. Outside the walls is a lonely structure called the Tower of Eyes. This is the citadel's first line of defense. It appears to be a somewhat larger copy of the citadel's central tower. And "copy" is a perfect description. You see, all around the city are several Towers of Eyes which are magical copies. If one stands at the top of the citadel's tower and squints just right, one will see the view from any of the Towers of Eyes around the city.
While this special vision is an illusion, as are the Towers of Eyes, the defenders can reconnoiter the whole area from a place of safety. While it's impossible to interact physically with the Towers of Eyes or the area it views, it is said that magic users can hurl spells down on to anyplace near the Towers.
As promised in my previous post, I have deleted a bunch of ads. Nearly 75 of them. It was an annoying process of hunt and peck. This group was from Rakuten Advertising, a company I never really jelled with. The ads featured images that were good, but the image size was always too large for my website. Next up is AbeBooks ads. I have to target the code for the links which is an interesting tactic.
It's kind of liberating not having to think about ads.
I have added two more items to the "cut and trim" list. I'm going to kill my Anchor and Locals.com accounts (complete). I really don't need locals and it is very unlikely that I go back to podcasting. It was a COVID Crisis moment. You know the bit where you personally believe you are having some sort of existential crisis but on further reflection, it doesn't exist?
COVID=Threat or Danger. I ran out of podcasts in the middle of an epidemic=not worth thinking about.
You see how that doesn't make sense, so off it goes.
Maybe... just maybe, I will revisit podcasting someday.
As you have probably noticed, there have been changes to the front page of These Old Games. Gone are some of the ads and they have been replaced by a Support Me on Ko-Fi.
Rather than looking at my blog as a revenue stream, I would like to fund a project that does not yet rise to the level of a Kickstarter while being slightly more developed than These Old Games can support. This project is called:
I had originally intended it to be D&D campaign book, but in light of the OGL 1.1 disaster, it has been pared back to a rule system agnostic Campaign Handbook. A fictional travel log for adventurers. I have posted sample maps here plus some background information. I am currently in the process of moving that data over to my Ko-Fi project page.
The benefits of this are two-fold. I have been running ads on These Old Games for years and that has become problematic. First, ads interfere with the reader's enjoyment of the site. Second, ads cannot fund a project of this scale. Most readers are likely to click an ad for DriveThruRPG while ignoring ads for other websites.
To this end, I will be working to eliminate all Non-DTRPG links. This is a big project in and of itself. I wish I could say "this blog is ad-free," but I am not there. In fact, I think that completely removing all ads including the DTRPG ads might not support the gaming community. I like to push people to great products, which is difficult when DTRPG hosts so many great projects.
So, what is up with Ko-Fi?
I guess this is the portion of the blog where I sadly admit that I'm not quitting my day job to produce content. That is not the intent of this project.
I am using Ko-Fi to get this project off the ground by raising a modest amount of support while being accountable to a community. This is not an exchange of funding for specifically targeted content. It is to keep on track to complete a PDF that will eventually be sold. Ideally, if this project is successful, it could become a Kickstarter for physical books. That is my goal, but it all seems very far away. There is so much content creation between now and then that I have a hard time picturing the end. You are not funding a book, you are funding me to write a book. Or three.
To that end, I have five-ish different "levels" over on Ko-Fi. Following me is the first step and level. There is no cost to following me on Ko-Fi. You will not see every post, but I hope you see enough to decide to hit that support button. The next level is a one-time tip or donation. This is where you throw some change in the tip jar. Like a follower, it really confers no Ko-Fi benefits beyond knowing you chipped in to make this happen.
Next are the paid tiers, at $3, $5, and $10. Starting at the bottom, The Southern Tier (yes, a pun), you will be joining my Community and will receive a shout-out here on These Old Games and get Discord access to my little server. In the next level, The Central Tier, you will receive everything The Southern Tier receives plus some behind-the-scenes content. This behind the scene content will be things that probably won't fit in the book, but may be of interest to you as a DM and gamer. The final tier will include everything listed before plus the ability to Direct Message me on Ko-Fi plus a pre-release PDF of sections and chapters that will ultimately end of the book.
In sharing this post, I would hope that some of you would take a moment to join Ko-Fi and click that free follow me button.
There is no TL:DR version of this. This new idea is wildly outside my comfort zone. I am creating a fantasy campaign predicated on a time-traveling Elf stealing a nuclear weapon and a cool pair of Raybans to overthrow a god, only to settle on being a travel blogger. That is nuts enough. But the reality of this project is, simultaneously committing to start a community, raise funds, delete a bunch of completed blog posts AND write as many as 3 books.
That's crazy. The part that makes me most uncomfortable isn't all of the hard work, it's the request for support. I've gotta tell you while getting this project off the ground, I've been hearing this song non-stop.
And I don't mean in my headphones or on Youtube. I hear it when I'm sleeping, too.
One of my favorite tools is the RedBlade character generator for 3.5. This tool is amazingly simple to use. I was able to cook up a Sorcerer in just a few minutes. The output is in HTML, which makes it easy to post online.
In just a few minutes, I was able to cook up Fel the Sorcerer, a Half-Elf. The software knows exactly how a character is built, so I don't have to track skill points or feats or even languages. It is a thing of beauty.
Fel character sheet, Redblade 3.5e
Fel
CHARACTER NAME
PLAYER
CAMPAIGN
6 Sorcerer
Half-Elf
Neutral Evil
CLASS AND LEVEL
RACE
ALIGNMENT
EXPERIENCE POINTS
ABILITY NAME
ABILITY SCORE
ABILITY MODIFIER
TOTAL
WOUNDS/CURRENT HP
NONLETHAL DAMAGE
SPEED
STR strength
11
+0
HP hit points
14
30ft.
DEX dexterity
15
+2
AC armor class
14
=
10
+
1
+
0
+
2
+
0
+
0
+
1
+
0
CON constitution
10
+0
TOTAL
BASE
ARMOR BONUS
SHIELD BONUS
DEX MODIFIER
SIZE MODIFIER
NATURAL ARMOR
DEFLECT MODIFIER
MISC MODIFIER
DAMAGE REDUCTION
INT intelligence
14
+2
TOUCH armor class
13
FLAT-FOOTED armor class
12
SKILLS
SKILL NAME
KEY ABILITY
SKILL MODIFIER
ABILITY MODIFIER
RANKS
MISC MODIFIER
(cc)Appraise¤§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Balance¤
dex
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
Bluff¤§
cha
6
=
2
+
4
+
0
(cc)Climb¤
str
0
=
0
+
0
+
0
Concentration¤§
con
4
=
0
+
4
+
0
Craft¤§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
Decipher Script§
int
4
=
2
+
2
+
0
(cc)Diplomacy¤§
cha
6
=
2
+
4
+
0
(cc)Disable Device§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Disguise¤§
cha
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Escape Artist¤
dex
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Forgery¤§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Gather Information¤§
cha
6
=
2
+
4
+
0
(cc)Handle Animal§
cha
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Heal¤§
wis
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Hide¤
dex
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Intimidate¤§
cha
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Jump¤
str
0
=
0
+
0
+
0
Knowledge (arcana)§
int
4
=
2
+
2
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (architecture & engineering)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (dungeoneering)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (geography)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (history)§
int
3
=
2
+
1
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (local)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (nature)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (nobility and royalty)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (religion)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
(cc)Knowledge (the planes)§
int
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
WIS wisdom
14
+2
TOTAL
DEX MODIFIER
MISC MODIFIER
CHA charisma
15
+2
INITIATIVE modifier
+6
=
2
+
4
SAVING THROWS
TOTAL
BASE SAVE
ABILITY MODIFIER
MAGIC MODIFIER
MISC MODIFIER
TEMP. MODIFIER
FORT constitution
2
=
2
+
0
+
0
+
0
+
REFLEX dexterity
4
=
2
+
2
+
0
+
0
+
WILL wisdom
7
=
5
+
2
+
0
+
0
+
BASE ATTACK BONUS
3
SPELL RESISTANCE
0
GRAPPLE modifier
3
=
3
+
0
+
0
+
0
TOTAL
BASE ATT BONUS
STRENGTH MODIFIER
SIZE MODIFIER
MISC MODIFIER
ATTACK
ATTACK
DAMAGE
CRITICAL
Defending Spear +1
4
1d8+1
20/x3
RANGE
TYPE
NOTES
20
6lb, Med, twohanded wielding,
ATTACK
ATTACK
DAMAGE
CRITICAL
RANGE
TYPE
NOTES
(cc) crossclass skill
¤ can be used untrained § apply armor penalty
