Tower Playtesti

 Hello just blogging. I'm doing a test of my worldbuildy game which you are welcome to look at. I wanted to get a feel for the new dice mechanics I added when I decided that unpaid Envoys can settle and interacted with in a way other than cards. It seems to work in a satisfying enough way. The following is basically what my playtest looked like. At the end of it I wrote a couple of notes about what needs adjustment. Also I should note that some of the rules I'm following are currently handwritten on a printed copy I made of the rules and I will need to go in and type them out in the rules doc. 

 Another thing. I was doing a bit of study of Tarot reading to try and figure out satisfying ways to actually make use of the visuals of Tarot cards and had this blogpost hit me in the face with such an obvious realization that I felt the need to implement it immediately, though it's not really apparent here it will be a more obvious inclusion in the future. I am using the Pamela Coleman Smith deck because it's the classic. 

 

When a Court Card is named, followed by a numbered card of Suite, that indicates a vision is had. If an envoy is declared to Arrive that suggests a number of days relating to their Questing card have passed.

 

Playtest: 

King of Cups, V of Swords. Name a mythical creature. The Baron's Hound, an oily creature said to worm it's way into the minds of innocent people and turn them into cruel wretches. It slithers in through the ears and can only be expelled by boiled honey water. Faire: The Lovers VI

F:d20
C:d6
S:d12
W:d10
P:d8
F: +

Knight of Pentacles, V of Cups: Name a mythical creature. Ivory Thing. Like a crane but yellowed like bone, resembling a carved and aged tusk but larger than a true bird. It is said to live in birch forests. It's story tells of it feeding it's young fingerbones and building their nests from ribs. Faire: The Devil XV

F:d20
C:d12
S:d6
W:d10
P:d8
F: 

Envoy King of Cups arrives. Settled for now, with an unpaid Faire. Rolled for interactions. Faire dice roll was 14, spent it on paying off the Faire. Good Favor. Swords roll is a 3, I will spend the Pentacles dice to flip the one added facedown card (need a name for this maybe?). The facedown card is a cup. Maybe I get to add it to my hand? 

Page of Cups, IV Pentacles. Learn of trade: From the plains a new crop is finding it's way East. While it closely resembles wheat, it is touted as being medicinal and even as causing visions. People in the City of Salary are skeptical, though it is being offered in huge quantity in the market vendors and for reasonable prices. Faire: The Hanged Man XII

F:d20
C:d6
S:d10
W:d8
P:d12
F:

Visit the Envoy of Cups again. Dice are cast. Sword die rolls a 2. Not enough. I debate spending one of the other die to reveal the facedown card. I spend The cups die revealing X of Pentacles. I pocket it. The Favor becomes negative since the Envoy hasn't been paid yet. (maybe favor flips after a certain amount of days without interacting. Let's make it 2 based on vibes.) 

Knight of Pentacles Arrives. Faire is paid with VIII of cups. Roll d6 to determine how the vision manifests. Rolled a 6 which is above the 2 required of a knight. People are wary of the birch forests. Some villages are close enough that the townspeople take cautionary measures in fear of the Ivory Thing. The most effective thing people swear by is deboned, salted and spiced fish left by entryways, spiced to keep the stray cats from stealing it in the night. 

This Envoy's Journey was five cards: VIII of S, Ace of W, VII of W, 9 of S, V of P (interpret as wished). It ended in leasure (spent X of cups) and they do not settle at all, save for a long drink with the Tower's Ward, before heading off to continue their journey. 

Visit with the King of Cups again, their Favour has turned to positive again after two days left alone. Dice are rolled. Swords die rolls 6, though I spend both dice to flip the stacked cards on the settled Envoy and pick two to use or add to my current hand. Cards are II of P, X of W, and The Magician ( a mistake on my part) so I pick the first two cards to add to my current hand. Having no dice to use as a card, I spend The VIII of S to pay off this Envoy. I roll a 4 to manifest the Vision which matches the King's requirement. The vision is adjusted thusly: It is rumoured that palace sorcerers have captured Baron's Hounds in wine bottles, corked and bound with spells written in wax and ichor. The Envoy thanks you for your hospitality and will be leaving shortly to return home. (The Faire that has been paid should effect something about this, I'm still not sure how that will look.) VIII of Swords should also flavor how the Envoy left, forgot to decide that but will make note to do it in the future.

Hand and Journey cards combined then pared down to 5 cards.

The Fool: X of Swords. An unexpected Visitor comes to the Tower. In this vision, they tell you of the Grain from the Plains and how it is rending the city to madness. Faire:

Page of Cups Arrives. Their Journey is VI of S, II of C, IX of C, VI of W, IV of S (interpret as desired in order). Hanged man is swords. Faire paid with IX and IV of Swords. Envoy is paid with V of Pentacles. Dice is rolled above a 1 so the Status quo is undisturbed, their story matches your vision perfectly (paid Faire modifies in some way, etc). They return on their Quest in some way based on cards spent (again, must make a note of this.)

End of this Tower playtest. 

Things to note:

1. Faire unpaid and settled should have some effect. Faire paid should have some effect on vision or Envoy's character. Ex. The Devil could suggest the Envoy had some sort of ensorcellment, The Lovers could suggest the Envoy is leaving to return to someone special to them etc.
2. Flesh out Journey based on Journey cards arranged chronologically. There is a story in this Journey, it is based on vibes. 
3. Cards used to pay Faire and Envoy should add flavor. In the case of the Faire, it should suggest how the Faire was overcome, or how the Envoy has come to terms with this Faire. In the case of Paying the Envoy, the cards should suggest how the envoy was convinced to tell you things in relation to the vision. 
4. Note should be taken of the Journey cards in hand and who they were received from. This is getting tedious but it is an interesting idea of continuity. Ex. Using a X of Swords you received from another envoy to pay off an Envoy could be you recounting their sight of bandits on the road to offer comradery as a caution in their future travels. 
5. Gotta be a better way to take notes of these playtests.

on being a cheap ass

 ebay is a monster. It makes monsters of us all. 

 

I have been descending down a rabbit hole looking at oldschool citadel models. I think there's a word for having nostalgia for a time you weren't a part of, I don't know what it is off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to google it right now. These ebay listings hit that note. 

I've been looking at old the old Lord of the Rings line by citadel quite a bit. Not all of the sculpts hit for me, but there's specific Frodo (ME-13), Sam (ME-34), and Gandalf (ME-82) sculpts that really make me yearn. They're not overly expensive, but they're not cheap either. Also,  they're mostly available from overseas sellers. This hobby, man.

So, being cheap I haven't dropped the hammer on these yet (is that a phrase?). Instead, I've continued digging and browsing deeper and deeper into the inspirational depths of The Lost Minis Wiki and The Stuff of Legends (RIP Orclord). Also, just trawling ebay seller pages intently. There's a lot of just, sick as hell minis from back in the day, and they're all just a little pricier than I want to drop money on.

At the behest of my friend, I'm saving myself some money and sculpting my own. Here's the start (not the start), heavily heavily based on the Fantasy Tribe Fighters 43, Captain of Chaos figure.

 

no he is NOT tugging on his salami

lil face because I can't not sculpt a lil face

 And here's the original from one angle

 I'm debating adding some of these details and leaning on the side of Not adding them at all. Obviously I haven't added the plume, or the cape, or the end of the mace. The mace I will add after I bake it, likely with greenstuff. I didn't plan the armature very well. The plume and the cape add so much to the silhouette of the original figure, so if I do decide to add them it will also be post baking. 

It is very cool to be able to sculpt some kind of approximation of a figure you like. It's also cool to just own the figure you like. So, I kind of consider this an exercise in delaying the inevitable. Maybe I'll sculpt one of the hobbits next. 

 

casual update

 hello keeping it cas. casual. I have been a little lacking in hobby. sometimes that happens. It's not burnout just sometimes you take a lil step back from doing things, nothing wrong with it relax. 

 I started sculpting some mounted halflings to use for HAIRFOOT JOUSTING and that has been a bit less of a joy than I thought it would be. I'll get back to it sometime, here's a pic of what I have 

great pic, twabbis

 frog and a hare and a lady and man halfling. much work to be done still, motivation will return eventually. I really want to play hairfoot jousting. 

In another effort to get myself hobbying, I'm painting some more of my sculpts. trying to get my scamps done and I started on the meteor squig

 

 didn't mean for the flesh colored scamp to be flesh colored but I kinda vibe with it so I'll keep it. Demonic scamp... The red eye is kind of great too, unfortunately. scamps can be anything you want them to be it doesn't matter ultimately to me as long as it matters to you. 

 anyway, just an update. blogging is blogging. gonna steep some more pu-erh tea and finishing catching up on hobby youtube backlog 

It's time for a... POST

 This hobby is so strange sometimes. Sometimes really surprising and sometimes in really good ways. I probably should charge my digicam (Digital Camera) cuz I'm gonna need to take some pics for this post. Lemme get that going then I'll start writing some more.

 Ok, it's charging. 

One bad thing about using my camera from 2007 is that it's from 2007 and no matter what, the battery doesn't last like modern devices. That and, sometimes when the battery runs out it wipes the memory card. That and, when the battery dies I have to reset the date and time...

Every Tuesday I go to bar trivia. Some weeks I miss but usually I'm there. I don't always contribute a lot, but one thing that frequently happens is that me and my friends draw wizards on the scrap paper we get from the trivia host. Here's a couple of those. 

I tried to ad lib a poem and gave up so don't bother reading it lmao

 

It's fun to draw wizards. No one reading this is surprised. Last week, I had a bit of a divergence. Last week we had a different host and we didn't get enough pens so I borrowed my roommates micron. Something magical happened, dear reader... Last week, I drew little gnome-like guys. Then I got my friends to draw little gnome guys too. Here they are.

 

these are the ones I drew

all of them

I posted these on discord and people seemed really stoked about them. I decided to post them on instagram but, not all of them because it felt a little strange to share other people's art without their knowledge. But, I asked people to sculpt one of them if they wanted to, FOR FREE. This isn't a challenge I just thought it was funny to shift the burden of sculpting onto someone else in a Non Challenge way. Got a couple replies from people I wasn't expecting, which was fun but I didn't expect too much to come of it. Everyone's got their own stuff going on, no one really was going to take the time etc. Well, yesterday while at trivia ( a week after sharing) I got a message from a hobbyist who almost exclusively customizes tyranids for Warhammer. And he had sculpted one of my guys! That man is frankendoodle65. I think you'll understand my surprise with just a click through. He knocked it out of the park too, I mean my jaw dropped. I showed everyone in my group, my friend who sculpted the fishnet gnome asked if anyone was gonna sculpt that one and I had to kind of awkwardly try to explain my earlier reservations when sharing the gnomes. I regret that! Anyway, look at this. 

 

 

I mean c'mon, that's cool! It's perfection! It kind of pissed me off, so I had to sculpt one too. Now, let me check my camera and see if I can get a good pic. 

 

 I think I did alright! So, if you want to, go with my permission and sculpt one yourself! And if you sculpt the fishnet one send me a pic so I can send it to my friend, I think they'd really like that.

 

 

 

Extra Extra!

I drew a wizard with eyeball minions the week before last and sculpted an eyeball minion. I have to revisit this concept because it's not Quite What I Want but here it is. Nothing super special just something else to blog about!

 

just making an effort to blog...

 I'm gonna post this on instagram too... but...

Here's Hobby Update for the Blog:

Snails.

 Sculpting snails in cheap polymer clay is the best here's some of those mmk?

 These were done in Fimo Effects clay. I forgot exactly what effects they were until I baked them (this is not entirely true, I knew used the green on a different snail) so when they came out of the oven I was pleased to see what they became!

 

delicious JADE snails :)

Let's keep ESCARGOing. I'm sure you noticed there's a guy in the middle, and a door. Well, the door I didn't take any process pics of. I was looking at old citadel models and they had some cool dungeon doors and I wanted to sculpt a door. I'll try again sometime. One more thing on that topic actually: old citadel had a LOT of weird models of ladies being tortured for some reason??? They were going crazy back in the day no wonder moms were so against tabletop stuff!

Ok ok sorry, so. The guy in the middle is I drew a picture of a snail like Solid Snake. I've been trying to figure this out for a while, since I read through the Wanted! Reward cc 10k rules the first time.  I did this drawing and it was exactly what I wanted so I sculpted it.

can you even see the drawing in this oh well

a bit o' wip

I'm amazing

 One final update because, well, this is what I've been up to. I sculpted the coolest orcy face of my life yesterday using colored polymer clay in a way I haven't really before. It was very worth it, you should give it a try!

 Ok so that's pretty much it that I can share. Thanks for reeeeading 

bye

twabbis 

short and SHweet

 Been painting a lil bit...

 It turns out, it's pretty rewarding to paint minis. All of these except the middle one are my own sculpts, and it's rewarding to paint them. It's rewarding to paint your friend's sculpts. Must get better about doing that! The real Wanted Reward CC10k was to finish painting a mini! 

 

One more thing!

 

I'm working on The Tower v1.3

 

I'm (slowly) figuring out mechanics for Envoys to kind of settle down a little around the tower and to form some kind of narrative interactions with them. Each Envoy now has a little card which will have dice assigned to the Suits and Faire and there is gonna be like, a favor mechanic that determines if the Envoy likes you depending on your last Faire rolls. I'm still figuring out exactly what that looks like!

Ok like I said, short and SHweet. Have a good weekend, hope it's at least 3 days long for you! holidays, baby!
 

Lies That Wizard Will Tell You

 I'm working on this zine and figure I should keep track of the progress in some way. So, I'm doing like I did for Mishiev and cube waltz and updating this post whenever I make significant progress. It is the 30th of April.

 

I keep editing this post and reuploading things lol

I've been adding to my little sketch version of the zine. I wrote my ideas in a google document first and was planning to only use the ball point pen doodled version as a reference for when I made the zine in photoshop. Once more I've learned the lesson, I hate working on a computer. I think I've made the decision to write the whole thing by hand. I started working on drawing the zine at a bigger scale, each page being half of a folded piece of paper (hamburger style). It turns out, I hate drawing at large scales too! So, unfortunately I'll be making this zine at a 1:1 scale. Ideal? I really don't think so. 

 

may first mayday m'day.

Scanning in sketch. While I was doodling At Scale I started adding borders to each page, then kind of went "oh, I could make it look kinda like a book" and so... 

 

my reference/sketch version

omg... it's genius

I have a lot more stuff to write onto each page and I want to adjust the spacing/layout a bit. Though, I do think it feels nice where it's at it just needs more info per page. 

 

May... the 7th...

 

I haven't worked on this for a few days. Here's where it's at and you'll see... I decided not to hand letter it. Also, the page borders being book pages are gone. 

 

 Well, the page borders are mostly gone. I need to print this out perfectly without text and trace my art on a fresh sheet of PAPER. big sigh. My printer doesn't like to print things flush and I'm too dumb to figure it out, so if you can believe it I've hit another wall. As you can also see, I did the text with digital text. It looks good I think actually, really nice. 

 I have one more problem though, from switching to digital text. I'm able to fit more stuff onto a page. Ergo, I have a lot more room on page 2 than I did before. I have an idea of what to do for the empty space I just need to come up with a bunch of silly wizard lies. Difficult to be funny. 

 

5/12/2026

OK that's it I'm calling it, I am calling it.  It is done. I inked it, scaled it fit it to the text. Decided to leave the text that I chose ultimately for that one page. Future zines will include more lies I think. It's kind of messy and cluttered but who cares, it's a zine! haha!!

 So download it from here or whatever, I don't care! It's one of those micro zines, print it out and fold it up. I numbered the pages for you! I'm so kind, thank you, myself! Edit: Also included a Read Only version for the computer of phone!

 

Ok so there's another post. thanks for reading, goodbye again!

 

twabbis