Irons In Fires

Happy Zine Month!

I've made a goal to publish 6 things in 2026. I'm knee deep in laying out and polishing up Bolthaven Folio #3 right now, and I've got a new editing gig in the door, so the next few weeks feel very full. I've got some other projects in the hopper, but I may take a look back and rehab some old projects during March. So let's see what's on my mind lately.

The Present

I've done some testing with the Settlement System that appears in Bolthaven Folio #3. It's minimal as tests go, but I think the system holds up. It'll be interesting to see this work at larger settlement sizes. I'm hoping to get that published this week for Zine Month (#ZiMo), so stay tuned. And the aforementioned editing gig just kicked off, so I'll be distracted for the next few weeks.

Loose Game Prep

Not a self-portrait, but close.

I ran my Fellport D&D game yesterday for the first time since September. Before that, I did some game prep, but I don't know that my game prep is the same as your game prep. So let's talk about it.

I don't like to do "strict" game prep. I think of "strict prep" like prepping for a dungeon. "Room 1 is 30 foot square with 10 foot ceilings, and it contains an orc and a pie." The description is stated as hard facts, and there's very little the characters or the GM can add in the moment. You can bake in some surprises and leave the furnishings vague, but generally the play experience is stiff and not very memorable. It's not great for the party splitting up and wandering an urban landscape, getting into trouble wherever they go.

As a general rule, I do "loose" game prep.

Testing Settlements - Coldwater Bend Part 5

Finally A Hamlet!

I'm testing my settlement system by telling the story of Coldwater Bend, a brand new hamlet built by a party of ex-adventurers by the riverbend teeming with trout. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

Turn 13

Income generates 4 Coin (the Tavern triggered!), 2 Morale, 2 Wood, and a River Trout. Growing to a Hamlet proceeds apace (4 of 6 PP done. Next turn for sure.). Foraging turned up nothing. We get an Attack for an Event this turn, so we'll resolve that after Trading.

Our Specialists take their 2 Coin. Zofia trades a Wood for 1 Iron and 1 Coin (yay, special ability!), and pays 1 Coin to get some Wheat, as a hedge against growth. Tadek takes the Iron and forges weapons, giving a +1 to Militia until next turn.

Hanlon Greyrazor (Traveller Character)

Before the flashbang injury.

Have I mentioned that I love the lifepath generation as part of Traveller's character generation? Cyberpunk rocks pretty hard for that as well. I just love getting a story out of rolling dice. It's like a bonus mini-game you get to play before actually playing the game.

Over on The Plus One Experience Discord server, we were discussing choosing to act in bad faith for the attention vs. simple incompetence. The concepts of Hanlon's Razor and Grey's Law came out simultaneously. So I portmanteaued the hell out of those two terms and came up with Hanlon Greyrazor. And this dashing rogue in my head cried out for stats, so I broke out my Mongoose Traveller book and found the Central Supply Catalogue to outfit him with some chrome as a hat tip to Cyberpunk.

Hanlon Greyrazor 764CA9 (Human Male, Age 38) (Current Balance Cr 24,000)
Admin 1, Advocate 2, Astrogation 1, Athletics 0, Broker 0, Diplomat 1, Drive 0, Electronics (Computer) 2, Gambler 1, Gun Combat 1, Heavy Weapons 0, Mechanic 0, Medic 1, Melee 0, Navigation 0, Pilot (Spacecraft) 1, Recon 1, Steward 1, Streetwise 1, Vacc Suit 0

Testing Settlements - Coldwater Bend Part 4

Need better outhouses.

I'm testing my settlement system by telling the story of Coldwater Bend, a brand new hamlet built by a party of ex-adventurers by the riverbend teeming with trout. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Turn 10

Income consists of 3 Coin, 2 Morale (Culture has a +1 temporary bonus, so we're currently at 7 and getting a few bonuses on rolls), 1 River Trout, and 2 Wood. The people finish work on the Tavern, and it gets added to the Infrastructure list, giving +1 Culture and a 50% chance of generating 1 Coin at Income. The Recruiting effort bears fruit, attracting 2 People (I rolled a 1 and added 1 from High Morale). I rolled Settlers as an Event, so another 5 People (rolled 4, plus 1 for High Morale) move to town. That puts us at 18 Population, squarely in the overlap between Holding and Hamlet. Looks like we should start working on growing Coldwater Bend pretty soon.