Primed and ready

 Hi again, you've likely come to expect this but here it is... 

The second post. 

Firstly, I recently dug up my old olympus digital camera. Something's in the air I guess. I'm making the decision to use it for everything going forward, hobbywise at least. 

the OG Dappled Dopes 29rd

desk clutter

There's just something about it! Idunno! I never used flash with this back in the day, I hated flash! I did everything in my power to not use it. Now, I love it. It kind of washes everything out but also gives this great depth to a picture. I blame everyone at Adpeticon for this. 

I made the big decision to bulk prime all my based minis (based on what?) so I can  hopefully get some painting momentum going. Dear reader, I have a pretty sick collection of minis. I'm not going to go into it but I'm a lucky boy, really I am. Anyway here's some pictures and that'll be the whole post haha!

now that's a box of minis!

Eh I also got some cheap storage things at Joanne's. I'm gonna go back and buy more. Organized a bit and I'm kind of hooked on it. Wow, order!

Ok well, there's your two posts :D

have a great weekend bye!

twabbis

MISCHIEVOUS UPDATES

 Headaches aplenty. I got the rules to a point I'm happy and the formatting has continued. By the end of this post I'll probably be done formatting. Actually yeah. I'm gonna post this once it's done but this is where I'm at before then. 

I'm doing my formatting in photoshop and my printer kind of sucks. I've done some test prints to varying degrees of success. One nice thing about actually printing the thing though is it lets me scribble notes and images on the page. I did some of the drawing details in photoshop already but man I hate staring at the computer and ALSO I prefer the feel of pencil on paper. It feels easier. Everything digital is kind of daunting and feels unnatural. Here at Dessicated Dope Industries, we hate the computer. 

I got some advice from Chris (@sparktrooper) and took a bit of it, and ignored some of it as well (I'm not gonna use indesign even though it's smart!) I've pushed the borders in quite a bit, and I might do it more. The text is closer to center and further from the bottom, top, and outer edge. If I push it more, it will give me more room to draw fun stuff later. I also indented the text under each section title to help with legibility. This is specifically helpful with the ITEMS page, things definitely got cluttered in a bad way. 

So that's where I'm at today 5/7/2025

Changes have been made, edits etc. I'm still debating adding more rounds to the game. The text formatting I THINK is done, now I just need to implement the art which means I have to draw it. I've printed the text and the digital sketches on separate pages and I'm gonna use a light table to trace some of it. Then I'm gonna just go buckwild and draw the rest of it. I'm thinking the rest of this process is going to be physical, as I hate staring at the computer. I still have six days so I might just put it off until closer to last minute. I can feel the burnout creeping in just like it did after I made my yellow cube game last year. It's about the same time of year too, now that I think about it. Cool. Annual mid year burnout. I'm gonna try to take it a bit easy. I changed Worthless to Rubbish on the Items table. It feels like each Item type should start with a different letter, idk. I might change it back. 5/9/2025

----

Today, in a rush of inspiration I did my damnedest to draw the rest of the art for this game. Upon posting, there were a few more suggestions made for rule clarity which I've since added. I think the game is done, but I'll sit on it a few more days before submitting it to the jam. I can FEEL the burnout. 

There's a bit of moving things around I'd still like to do I think. Minor things. Pixels. 5/12/2025

Hi ok, just about ready to post this. By the time you're reading this, it will be posted. I didn't do any more edits to the game since the 12th, but I didn't explain what the changes I made were. 

July over on the NCTT suggested these changes and I think they were the right call for clarities sake. I also think I didn't explain that the item value of stashed items also added onto your winning score in the rules. One of the confusions they had was with the amount of times you could do each action on your turn and weren't completely sure it wasn't ok to use a bunch of 6" movement actions per turn. Hopefully it's clear that isn't the case now, but if it is then you're reading here that isn't my intention. One thing about the whole 28 games diy punky, rule of cool etc is I mostly just have faith that people will play the game in a way that doesn't feel cheap to other players. I don't want to feel like I'm condescending to the reader with the rules too but I also don't want things to be unclear. Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with the final rules. I hope you are mildly interested in it at least haha, if not whatever! That's ok too, I did it for myself mostly. 

Something fun during this one page jam is there's a lot of games like Mischiev28 that are kind of designed to be played on another game's board. If someone played this on a mordheim board I'd be thrilled! I want to play it on a Mordheim board! So I think I want to make a 2'x2' multipurpose board. I have a couple ideas. I bought some foam. Look forward to it, sometime hopefully!

Hope you're well, hope the weekend fills you with rest!

twabbis

Mischiev Report!

 Hello and happy Thursday. I've missed the window where I can take my afternoon nap and not feel like a bum so I'm making a cup of tea and writing a blog post. Also, just remembered I need to send an old coworker a text and see how he's doing. Lemme do that real quick then I'll get started on the rest of the post.

Ok, text sent and tea steeping let's see how much I can write before the timer goes off. Last night I playtested my game, Mischiev28. It went ok, but I had some concerns and wanted to test it again. This morning after work, I tested it again. This is going to be the Mischiev Report on how that went as far as I can remember it. 

The start of the game: The old abandoned overgrown factory. A Mischievous Man and Large Helmet find themselves rummaging around through rusted metal, crumbling stone, and twisting roots. What a surprise it is that there's anyone else here at all!

as per the rules, a roughly 2ftx2ft play area

For initiative I roll with each model's Locpick die. The rules state "determine initiative order" and so this is what I determined! Haha... Anyway, they roll at the same time and Large Helmet comes out ahead. I place him next to the Groundskeeper's Hovel. These rotting boards offer plenty of opportunity for stashing his crap- I mean, his incredible items! 

Meanwhile the Mischievous Man crawls out of this uh, this. What is this? He crawls out the top of it and stands on the edge platform. Hm. I measured just to be sure and they are both 10" apart as stated in the rules!

hello!

First turn of six, Large Helmet places hides a Wonderful item within a level six stash and locks it somewhat by rolling a 2. Only one dice was committed to this roll, and the act of rolling was seen to it's conclusion so that's the end of Large Helmet's turn (it says so in the rules!)

Meanwhile the Mischievous Man puts a Valuable item in a level 5 stash and hustles off of the ship, landing with a squelch in the mud and just barely avoiding stepping on a big nail. He puts a worthless item on the ground with a level 1 Stash die next to the nail, and since he can't move anymore and doesn't feel like locking this item up that ends his turn.

Second round, Large Helmet leaps the fence and scurries at least 5" away from it's last stash to place a new one in some gnarled roots. It stashes a worthless item in a level 1 Stash in full sight of the Mischievous Man. That means, if it wasn't just me playing this game alone then whoever was playing as the Mischievous Man would be allowed to know what kind of item Large Helmet stashed. It says so in the rules, at least. After that he moves his remaining 1" closer to a gnarled tree.

Mischievous Man makes a decision here to forego stashing. There has got to be something good here (I mean, I know there is because I'm playing the other character but...) and he heads towards it with his entire movement. He rolls his lockpick die and...

It's less than the lock die, so he gets to roll his tension die, which adds 3 to the lockpick roll allowing him to remove the lock from the Stash. Because he is trying to access the stash, the turn isn't over. "This is in the rules??" Well, this is what I intend the game to be played like, so there! 

I apparently rolled one of the mischievous man's stash die here... haha... oops...

here's the lock removed

He rolls a 1 and fails to obtain the stash. Rotten luck, that's his turn over now. 

Ope there's the tea, one second. 

Ok, tea secured. Where was I? Oh yeah, third round and it's Large Helmet's turn. She runs past the tree and places a Valuable item in a level 3 stash. Didn't expect me to keep switching the gender of Large Helmet, did you? Expect the unexpected. What you should also expect is that because Large Helmet also rolled one lock die, it gives this stash a level three lock and ends their turn. 

Mischievous Man rubs his hands together eagerly. This is getting exciting now, there has to be something good... He rummages around in the bushes a bit more-

And can't quite seem to figure out how to get through the dang stash. 

Round 4 and Large Helmet is all in on the stashing game. He runs up onto the platform of the... And places a level 5 stash containing a Valuable item in the door that's there that you can't see. He locks it tight with a roll of 5 and ends his turn. 

Cutting it close to the end, and with a pocket full of stashables Mischievous Man gives up on getting his fingers on Lrge Helmets stash. Instead, he places his own level 6 stash (no he did this the round before) containing a Valuable item and rushes towards the fencepost to place a level 4 stash containing a Wonderful item! With his remaining movement, he sets his sights on the Level 1 stash that Large helmet placed earlier.

Round five starts. Large Helmet makes it's moves towards the Mischievous Man's level 1 stash with a level 1 lock. It's probably unnecessary to even roll dice for this but

He gets through the lock and into the stash with ease and finds...

Something similar happens with the Mischievous Man as he closes the distance to the Level 1 stash. Let's see what he finds...

effortlessly finessed

What fortune! This is what the game is all about! Who could have seen this coming! I'm so stoked about this! I just added the snail to the game and even brought out some snail models to see how it would play!

So that's the end of round 5. Round six begins, and folks, it's the last round! Large Helmet has two items left to stash so, to start xe places a level 4 stash with a Nice item in it before moving North, dodging a swarm of gnats to place...

A level 2 stash also containing a Nice item.

Mischievous Man also catches on to the fact that he hasn't placed all his stashables and promptly throws down a Nice item which sinks into a level 3 stash in a mudhole. He turns to look over his shoulder and sees a big lock sticking out of a sewer grate and rushes over to it, at the last minute remembering the snail in his pocket which is worth 2 points once placed. He gently places it on the ground next to the sewer grating and pats it's shell a few times.

patpatpat

He tries the lock with his lockpick and it opens like it was never even closed in the first place. Then, with incredible ease (his roll matched the stash die) he opens the grating and finds...

A wonderful, uh, Valuable Hagstone! Which can't be used as an item at this point but is worth a cool 2 points.

That's the end of the game, so let's look at scores.

Helmet had 4 stashes left on the board and 1 lock. Each stash on the board is worth 1pt and the lock is also worth 1pt for a total of 5 points. The value of the items on the board are 2 Nice (1pt each), 1 valuable (2pts), and 1 Wonderful item (3pts) for a total of  12pts. The looted Deed is worth nothing at all... Not bad, Large Helmet! Now let's look at how the Mischievous Man did. 

With 5 stashes left on the board (the snail counts as a stash!) Mischievous Man has 5pts. The combined Value of his stash is 1 nice (1pt), 2 Valuable (2pts each), and 1 Wonderful item (3pts). Plus the snail counts as a Valuable item as well (2pts). Mischievous Man's total score is a whopping 16pts! Mischievous Man wins! 

The victor gains his prize

Well, that's the Mischiev Report. I have some thoughts on what's working and what's not, but I'm gonna save that for a future blog post. If you're interested in giving the game a go yourself, here's the latest rules doc. I'm slowly slowly laying this out as an actually cool looking and one paged version, but that'll be out at a later point. 

Thanks for reading all this, I hope your week has been going well and I hope you have a wonderful day!