RPG & WARGAME NEWSLETTER 75

September 9, 2024

Greetings, Gamers!

I don’t plan on doing this often, but this newsletter has much more about a single game than I’ve ever done in a previous newsletter. I hope you’ll forgive me for the increased coverage of a single game, and I promise I won’t do this very often.

I’ve been digging deep into a new (to me) wargame called Moonstone. I’ve watched videos, examined the website, read some battle reports, scanned some minis, and I’m quite impressed. Impressed enough to purchase? Not yet… mainly because it’s a 2-4 player game and I’ve not encountered anyone in Atlanta who is playing it OR a shop that is selling it. All that being said… I like what I see. It’s now available in the USA (it’s a game originally created and sold in the UK), and it was “Crowned as both Best Miniatures Range AND Best Miniatures Rules in the Judge’s Choice and Public Vote at UK Games Expo ‘23!”

That’s some good press! So, in addition to some random gaming stuff, you’ll find some more details below regarding Moonstone and my thoughts along with certain categories.

Let’s get to the fun stuff!

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RPGs

I want to thank The Wanderer’s Tome for providing me with a review copy of a new RPG they are taking to crowdfunding. It’s called Deadline and it’s an RPG for solo or group play where you’re creating a newspaper for a fictional city and the region around it.

From the site: DEADLINE - A Clockwork Press is a GM-less, news-chronicling, and map-making TTRPG from the creators of the ENNIE-nominated Flabbergasted! In this game, players will don a quill and cap and assume the roles of journalists for the largest news publishing house in the City. What city, you ask? Well, that’s for you to create and develop together with up to 5 friends or on your own in solo mode. The city you will create is a place of steam-powered industry, corruption, rebellion... and a touch of the arcane. 

I’ve read over the rules and taken a spin on the random tables and, as suspected, I found myself smiling throughout the process. The rules are provided in an actual newspaper format and gameplay is spread over two phases: Establishment and Chronicling. I cannot decide which phase I most enjoyed — the first was where I created my city (Kastleguard) and established its history, political goings-on, its areas (districts), and even its tech level. In the Chronicling phase, I named my newspaper (Kastleguard Journal) and I chose to have it lean towards a tabloid style publication, with the crazy stuff mixed with some real reporting and quite a bit of conspiracy theory tossed in. (To do all this stuff, I rolled 2d6 for many options… and others I chose based on my desire to focus the paper with personal choices - for example, I chose to have the city’s power provided by Steam, but I rolled for its Political Climate and got Council of Elders.)

I then moved onto creating the Headlines for a single issue, and I’m still smiling at some of the stuff the rolls provided along with my filling in of details:

Lost Artifact Discovered in Armada (a district in my city): Elders Wonder About its Dangers!

Masked Vigilante Found Dead! Police Refuse to Identify, Elder a Suspect.

The game has a beginning and end, but it’s not a game where you win or you lose. For me, it was a fun hour where I turned on my creativity and got to spend some time in a fictional city that I helped create. A game like this has some real benefits, IMO — you create a map, you flesh it out with regions/districts, you think about the different aspects of your city - laws, technology, crime, etc. It’s a brainstorming session turned into a game, and I think I really want to try this with a group. I could see teachers using this as a way to spark creativity, or a gaming group using it to develop a new city or even a world for their next RPG. I can imagine a lot of ways that Deadline could be slightly modified, too, to fit different genres and settings.

Deadline will be launching via BackerKit soon, but I don’t have an official date. As soon as I know, I’ll share it in an upcoming newsletter.

UPDATE: Deadline on BackerKit starts tomorrow, September 10, 2024!

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WARGAMING

Okay, so here it is. Moonstone. I’ve read the background (basic) on its website, and watched some videos. I’m not as knowledgable of the lore as I am the different minis in the game and the basic objective of the game. That said, the minis are really eye-popping and attention grabbers. You can find more info on Moonstone here.

There are some videos with decent coverage of the game’s mechanics, and one of them is below. (One of my favorite mechanics? The dropping of d4s onto the play area to determine the starting positions and complexity to remove of the moonstones!)

When I’m looking at getting into a new game, I watch videos to see about the gameplay, so keep in mind this is one that I watched and has me interested. More on the miniatures in that section below.

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Not available just yet, but this new skirmish wargame looks fun. It’s called Skirmish Ragers, and it’s a zombie apocalypse wargame that pits survivors versus the undead. It’s comes in a resealable bag… a fun concept… rulebook, minis, cheat cards, and dice. It looks very simple and fast-paced, although I haven’t found any gameplay video of it yet. Zombie minis are plastic, survivors are minis. It’s funding right now on Kickstarter (ends on Sept 19) and fulfills in December 2024. More info here.

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MINIATURES

Moonstone, mentioned above in the Wargaming section, has (right now) a total of eight factions in which its miniatures are divided (and an Undead version is coming soon). The minis are just amazing looking. I have no idea where I’d even want to start, but I will say that the one faction that caught my eye is the goblins, and the Trolls/Giants come in a close second. I’m still debating about this game, and I really wish it had solo rules, but the minis and the game’s mechanics are winning me over. You can view the various factions and minis here.

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BOARD GAMES

I’m a fan of the Final Girl solo set of boardgames where you pick your Final Girl and your Big Bad Guy and the locale… you can mix and match almoast a dozen different girls, a bunch of bad guys, and a collection of locales. I can’t do the math right now, but the number of possible combos is crazy. And Season 3 is coming out soon with six more girls, bad guys, and locales. Well, Van Ryder Games has announced a complete boxed set of another of its games with similar game mechanics called Hostage Negotiator. I’ve avoided buying it because the Final Girl series is enough for now, but they’re making it hard to say no with an upcoming All-In Collection that has the following:

• Hostage Negotiator Base Game

• Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave

• Hostage Negotiator: Career

• Abductor Packs #1-#10

• Demand Packs #1 and #2

• Alternate Finale Packs #1 and #2

• And all the Negotiator Promo Cards!

  
  $200 worth of games for just $99. I may get it this time around :) More info here. No date for the game’s release, but will let you know when I know…

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TERRAIN

I have ALWAYS wanted to create a mine diorama for a wargame to be played in levels, but I’ve never really been able to envision it in such a way as to be playable. Not anymore. Check THIS OUT! It’s for a western themed RPG, but it’s giving me ideas for a 3-4 level dwarven mine diorama.

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CROWDSOURCING

Okay, I’m a HUGE fan of Neuromancer by William Gibson (I read it once a year like clockwork), and while I rarely play cyberpunk games (mostly because they don’t have a solo option AND I don’t have players who are interested in my area), I’m seriously looking at this new release from Horse Shark Games. It’s called Netcrawl and it sounds AWESOME. You’re data in the stream… and you’re exploring a digital world. Think TRON mixed with a dungeon crawl, and I think that’s the general idea. Check it out here. The fundraising ends on Oct 3, 2024.

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GASLANDS VEHICLE OF THE WEEK

This week’s amazing toy car conversion for Gaslands is from Molinaro Dominique. I like the grime effect that is applied and the twin machines guns protruding from the headlights is a cool look.

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YOUTUBE

Here’s the video (below) that caught my eye and introduced me to Moonstone. Again, not pulling the trigger yet, but the miniatures are great and the gameplay sounds very fun. Oh, and the video has some great advice on painting up fantasy terrain. This channel got a new subscriber.

And this one is the one that has ALMOST convinced me to invest.

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CLOSING THOUGHTS

I’ve been having a lot of fun 3D printing sci-fi terrain… and I’m about to switch gears and do some fantasy terrain. I used to craft a lot (mostly XPS foam) but I’m finding 3D printers to give me more options when it comes to creating more variety in my tabletop layouts. I’m always looking for good sci-fi and fantasy terrain, so if you’ve got any to recommend, let me know at jimsworkshop@fastmail.com.

See you next week.

Jim

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TO MY SUBSCRIBERS

If you know of a local and/or independent gaming convention, email me at jimsworkshop@fastmail.com to get it listed.

You can find my zines and laser-cut terrain at thetabletopengineer.bigcartel.com - 10% off to newsletter readers with code RPGWGNEWS.
Digital copies of all my zines can be found on DrivethruRPG.

My game play-through videos can be found here.
The YouTube Channel name is The Tabletop Engineer Plays