I'm Alive?

I'm hoping to start posting about games again soon. I'd like to turn this into a blog about RPGs in general. As much fun as diving into the nitty gritty of HexKit is not sure how well it works as a blog. Maybe I'll do video. Who knows. Trying to push myself back into this.

Thoughts on Hex Maps - Part 3: A First Attempt

So my last couple posts about hex maps I have been focused on creating templates for detailing sub-hexes from an imaginary regional hex map. To be honest I'm not to sure why I wanted to make these other than it seemed like a neat idea and a way to practice with Hex Kit. I've also been contemplating the idea of running a hexcrawl for my group when my turn to GM comes up next. To that end I thought I should create a larger map to then zoom in on.

Thoughts on Love Your Escape Pod

At the end of last year I picked up a free game called Love Your Escape Pod by Zeshio Illustration. I was following Zeshio because of their (?) Pixel Hex Tileset for HexKit. I had a look and splurged for the deluxe edition as I like Zeshio's work and it was fairly cheap. It is a fairly light solo game, which appeals to me as I don't feel like I get to game enough. The concept is that you are on a doomed space station and you are trying to get to your escape pod. In the standard game you have 2 minutes (24 turns). The following is the narrative from the start of the game:

Thoughts on Hex Maps - Part 2: Metric Boogaloo

In my last post about hex maps I looked at using Hex Kit to break down a 6 mile hex into sub-hexes. I used the 6 mile hex as a starting point based on the article In Praise of the 6 Mile Hex from The Hydra's Grotto. After playing around with those maps a bit, I thought I should look into doing something up using a metric scale, seeing as how that is the system used here in Canada and most of the rest if the world. It also makes breaking hexes down fairly straightforward as everything can be broken down into a smaller scale by dividing by 10. 6 Miles is roughly 10 KM so all the benefits of a 6 mile hex are still applicable.

So I started out with creating a template in Hex Kit. This is a 10 KM hex broken into 1 KM sub-hexes. As before the red hexes fall completely within the larger hex, and purple ones are partially in the larger hex.

Thoughts on Time Travel in RPGs

I just finished watching the show Dark on Netflix. I enjoyed the first season, the second it started to get iffy, and I was highly disappointed in the third. I would say save yourself the trouble and just make the third season up on your own. Or just watch the first season as it was far better than the other two. I digress. This isn't meant to be a review of the show. The rest of my post will have spoilers, you have been warned.

Thoughts on Hex Maps - Part 1

Back in 2017 I backed the excellent hex mapping program Hex Kit by Cecil Howe. I love Cecil's art style, especially his maps from Shadow of the Demon Lord. He uses physical media for the most part so there is a real texture to his art. The art in Hex Kit is no different. I've been playing around in Hex Kit off and on and have made a few maps, but recently I've been looking into how to run some sort of hex crawl so I've been playing with it more. I've also been reading some blogs and other publications, and listening to some podcasts on the subject. Specifically:

• The Hydra's Grotto - In Praise of the 6 Mile Hex
• How to Hexcrawl
  
• Hexbox
• Hex Talk
  

I thought it would be a neat idea to use Hex Kit to break down an overland hex into sub-hexes as a way of practising with Hex Kit and also to practice hex mapping in general.

Based on the Hydra's Grotto post I decided to start with a 6 mile hex (measured edge to edge, not corner to corner) broken into 1 mile sub-hexes. So I made the following template to use:

Sea of red

What is this anyway?

Hello world.

I'm D43m0n and this is my brand new blog about tabletop role playing games (RPGs). This will be my first attempt at blogging and hopefully it wont suck. This will be a place for me to collect my thought's on games I'm playing, want to play, or am interested in playing. I also plan to post various maps I make or have made using the excellent HexKit by Cone of Negative Energy.

I've been playing RPGs for 24+ years, spending about half my time as a GM. The first RPG I remember playing was AD&D 2nd edition or possibly Palladium Fantasy. The first game I ran was West End Games Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, 2nd edition and that was when I truly fell in love with RPGs. It's also how I met most of my friends, many of whom I am still friends with and who also make up my current group. I ran and collected the books for Star Wars 2nd edition and Revised and Expanded. I continued to run it when Wizards of the Coast got the license, up until they released Saga edition. That was where I tapped out. The game seemed to have gone too much toward being a miniatures game. That's when they lost me. I guess people had the same problem with D&D 4th edition. I haven't played or run any of the later editions.

Get to the point...