3/25: AFTER THE SHRED
Hey, folks. Dutchmogul here, back with an update for the IGG goings-on for March.
We’ve been deep into the CRUX RPG/skirmish work of late and while I’m still not quite in mindset to make new Pocket-Tactics material, my mind has been wandering back to that old d6 system. I’ve been missing those particular dice mechanics and been wanting to push minis around a table, so our long-abandoned OpenTactics project has been calling to me. Now that Yondoor is nearly out yon door and we have a stable CRUX release (with a minor update coming), we’re feeling like it’s time to jump feet first into wargaming for a bit. But first…
PASSAGE TO YONDOOR PROGRESS UPDATE
We just got the books from our local printer. We’ll be getting those out in the mail soon, which means backers will be getting their zines in the mail (mail time being what it is) and the STL sets (monsters and dungeons) will be hitting the storefronts before the end of March. We’re really excited to get this stuff out there, and can’t tell you how great it feels to have completed a project of this scope. This is some of the best fun we’ve had with play tests in years.
Adeline has been running a multiplayer Yondoor campaign for the IGG crew that started as a birthday gift for yours truly (quite an honor), and it’s been really fun to actually get to play. (I GM an awful lot of the time.) My character is Renalte, an oafish, loser-wizard with a massive BUL/Strength build and, yep, that feels like elemental Yondoor to me.
MARCH SUBSCRIPTION BUNDLE: MAGE GUILDS
Okay, so let’s talk OpenTactics! This was one of our more popular games back when it first released and it’s one that I’ve wanted to whip into shape for a stable release for years. CRUX is my favorite system to play and write, but the process is so much more time-consuming on a project basis, and keeping up on sculpting and game design for our monthly output (Patreon, Kickstarter, et cetera) doesn’t give me a lot of spare time to focus on all the projects that I want to finish. When I sit back and look at the mountain of unreleased miniature sets that we’re sitting on, waiting for an eventual RPG to be finished, I get a little overwhelmed. This is all stuff that could be out there on people’s printers and game tables, and it’s just… waiting.
The system utilizes a grip of d6s per player, with one to three dice being used for a given test and the extras acting as markers for activated units. It’s a breezy experience and we’ve routinely been getting two or three battles to an hour of playtime. Those familiar with Pocket-Tactics should get a quick handle on the dice mechanics.
We started out our own play tests with a battle between killer robots and Vikings, because, why not. The robots won, which wasn’t terribly surprising, but we realized that even with all this genre/tech-level mixing, it would just take a build with more emphasis on magic users to make the Midgardians more competitive. This was a really valuable test and got our brains spinning on how to start out with the rules. We considered Nine Worlds, but ended up deciding on Streets of Plasma as our maiden OpenTactics venture. So, on that note….
APRIL PREVIEW: STREETS OF PLASMA
Well, this game been a long-time coming. I sculpted a full range of miniatures early into the Pandemic and then just… never made any rules. Story of my life, really. But hey, better late than never, so here we go. So next month, these miniatures will finally get a release and we’ll have an actual game to go along with them. We’ll be doing a Kickstarter, with a beta release available for those supporting us on Patreon and Tribes (including the full starter set of miniatures).
In Streets of Plasma, the remnants of humanity fight back against interdimensional alien invaders for the ruins of 1980s NYC. Set several years after “the Shred,” an extra-dimensional event of apocalyptic proportions, the game is a good excuse to mix modern or post-apoc models with any kind of weirdness you want. With full rules for creating custom survivors and alien invaders coming soon (because mini-agnostic is the way to be), we’ll be launching with two pre-built factions:
Survival Gangs - human survivors, banding together to turn back the extra-dimensional invaders
Reptiloids - scouting parties from an alt-Earth empire of humanoid dinosaurs
We have a bunch of additional factions planned, with rules coming for our recently released Parasite Mind and Mechanyte Battle Force sets (originally designed for this setting). And, of course, all of this material will be compatible with the universal rules and any faction/unit can fight (or even join) any others regardless of setting.
STREETS OF PLASMA: WAR FOR THE FIVE BOROUGHS
We just wrapped our space-scum CRUX campaign, leaving it on something of a cliffhanger after 13 sessions of play. We’ll come back to that story later, but for now we’re pivoting to a full Streets of Plasma campaign. We’re got 6 players for this run, with three players controlling human “survival gangs” and the other three playing interdimensional alien invader factions (Reptiloids, Mechanytes, and Parasite Mind). Each Monday night, players from either side will pair up and battle over control of one of the Five Boroughs of post-Shred NYC. For our first night we played tutorial matches, then played for real stakes, with the Survival Gangs re-capturing Manhattan and Staten Island for the remnants of humanity. I whipped up a quick map and dropped it onto the HQ whiteboard so we can keep track of shifting node-control as we finish battles.
The game can be played with standard terrain/rulers, or you can drop into a grid map and play that way. For this campaign (at least for some of it), we’ve been using LokeBattleMats’ fantastic Big Book of Cyberpunk Battle Mats, and I would be remiss if I didn’t give a proper shout-out here. These things are so, SO useful. Not only do we use this one for our regular CRUX RPG campaigns, but it turns out that it’s absolutely perfect for Streets of Plasma. Not that we don’t love our big fancy terrain tables, but it’s so nice to just sit across from your opponent, roll a die (we have a d60 handy), and flip the book open to a random map. These are a little smaller than the usual tables we use, but there are enough twists, turns, and features to keep things tactically interesting. We’ve had one for years and gotten plenty of use out of it, but we just picked up two more for this campaign. Added bonus: you can put the books together for bigger maps (something we plan to do for the multiplayer battles that will inevitably occur). We’re not affiliated with the people who make these, and the game will have some dedicated terrain, but as an honest recommendation, yeah… these rule. Get one. (Or a few.)
MARCH FREE MINIATURE: KEEPER OF THE BLADE
For the initial release of Streets of Plasma, the Survival Gangs are entirely comprised of unique (named) characters. While the opposing reptiloid force is powerful (bringing all their sci-fi dino-energy), they don’t have any named characters in the starter, so we figured this would be a great place to introduce one.
Designed as a sort of shepherd for the stone spear wielding Unproven, the Keeper is an honored warrior tasked with carrying a sacred obsidian relic-sword imbued with psionic power. Built for a mix of strong melee and ballistic support, the Keeper can use the Bio-Arc power to channel electrical damage, transforming themself and nearby allies into potent close combat robot killers.
Whether you’re printing the FDM support free STL or using the pre-supported resin version, download the zip file below and get to printing! The zip also includes an OpenTactics unit card, so if you’re getting in on Streets of Plasma via Patreon, Tribes, or Kickstarter when it drops in April, you can throw this therapod powerhouse into the mix.
Thanks for checking in and we hope you’ll be back next month. Until then, happy gaming!
Dutchmogul and the Ill Gotten Games team