How A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity Changed My Life

When I was in 3rd grade I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons by my cousins, Mike and Phil. They had gotten the Basic Set for Christmas and at the yearly family holiday gathering one of them ran my brother and I through an encounter from Keep on the Borderlands. My brother enjoyed it, but I quickly became obsessed. I was 8 years old and I had found my 2nd love (my first love was music, which I had already fallen for thanks to the band KISS).

I remember borrowing the Basic Set from my cousins and trying to DM my Mom through Keep on the Borderlands, mercilessly killing all her characters with kobolds. (Sorry mom, thanks for your patience!) I have so many memories from ages 8 and up that relate to gaming. My mom taking me to Walden Books for my first set of polyhedral dice. My mom taking me to the Greenhaven Library where I'd take out their Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual, and Deities and Demigods over and over again until my mom bought me my own. But one of my early moments of independence was riding my bike to 7-11 and buying my first Advanced D and D module, A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity. (Yes, at 7-11. It was a different time back then!)

Everyone from that era only seems to talk of the father of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax. But I had my own hero - David 'Zeb' Cook. A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity left an indelible mark with its orc guardians, aspis drones, and giant sundew that I think you had to kill with casks of wine? All I know is that David 'Zeb' Cook's name has been forever burned into my brain. X4 Master of the Desert Nomads, I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, and the Escape from New York board game were all in my collection. When all of my friends wanted to be astronauts or firemen when they grew up, I said I wanted to be a game designer for TSR when I grew up, like David 'Zeb' Cook.

Over the years I thought about things I would like to add to games like Crossbows and Catapults or even Monopoly (before there were 100 versions of Monopoly) and of course, I created all sorts of my own dungeon adventures for ADandD. By the end of my teens I owned a huge collection of ADandD books, modules and Dragon Magazines, and had finally started collecting games like Battletech and Car Wars. But I wasn't strictly an indoor kid. In high school, gaming was interspersed with laser tag, hacky sack, skateboarding, and eventually, playing music.

In 1994 I was singing in a straight edge hardcore punk band called Halfmast, playing ADandD when I wasn't practicing or playing shows, and had just opened a gaming store with my gaming group called Adventures Unleashed. In 1992 or 1993 I had started submitting articles to Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine because I still had it in my mind that I was going to be a game designer. In 1994, I made my first real accomplishment towards those ends, I had an article I had written published in Dragon Magazine #210 as part of their Arcane Lore series.

Somewhere around then, my focus changed slightly in terms of gaming. We started carrying Warhammer at Adventures Unleashed and my interest in role-playing quickly vanished. I played Warhammer Fantasy Battle first, and then Warhammer 40K, but they weren't the real game changers. In 1995 GW released Necromunda and it turned my gaming interests upside down. Like with ADandD I was obsessed. I spent hours painting, converting, building terrain, and writing my own scenarios. Now though, I was submitting them to Citadel Journal. I even got an acceptance letter for an article that never made it into print, but Citadel Journal was going through a lot of format changes then so I could see how I'd fall through the cracks. Regardless, now, instead of working for TSR, I wanted to work for GW.

In the summer of 1996 Halfmast broke up and I immersed myself more in Adventures Unleashed, doing lots of painting, gaming, and running gaming events. In 1997 we were having trouble keeping ourselves on the payroll and one of us was going to have to find a "real" job. It was around then that I saw an ad in White Dwarf that GW was hiring Trade Sales people. I sent a resume, scored an interview, and drove all the way from Buffalo, NY to Baltimore, MD to interview. I was so nervous I was shaking as John Matthews and another guy asked me completely reasonable questions and I stammered my way through answering them. It was bad. Really bad. But I had brought a bunch of my painted models and even some scratch built work. I didn't get that job, but they forwarded my name to the guy hiring new retail staff members, a guy by the name of Sean Forbes.

I received a series of calls from Sean because it just so happened they were expanding into Buffalo, NY. He eventually scheduled an interview for me with a guy named Brenden Terrill. I still remember sitting in the Walden Galleria food court in Cheektowaga, NY that afternoon, with this smug, sometimes serious, sometimes grinning guy sitting across from me asking me why I wanted to work for GW. I confessed, "I really just want to get my foot in the door so that I can eventually get involved in game design." He chuckled to himself and said, "You remind me a lot of me when I came to Games Workshop. You're hired."

Brenden had a lot of faith in me and reassured me that it was okay to buy my first (and only) new car, that my job was secure. In 8 months he had moved on to another new GW store and left me to manage GW108. Things were exciting and fun for a while. Then working for GW started to grind us both down. In late 1999 I started a new band called No Time Left. It felt great to be playing music again, it was such a different world than running demo games for a company that expected us to live and breath gaming 24/7 whether we wanted to or not. I remember reaching the point where I wanted to leave GW but I had those new car payments to deal with. Brenden and I left GW within a few weeks of each other in 2001, and I only had 1 car payment left. I was free. A few months later I went on my first coast to coast tour of the US with my band No Time Left.

Over the years I dodged back and forth between music and gaming as my focus, but they've always been right here with me. The desire to design games has never left me. Two years ago I fell in love with a project my friends were working on called Wreck-Age, the post-apocalyptic RPG and miniature skirmish game. I helped a lot with play testing, helped iron out some kinks in the rules, and introduced some small concepts. I left a very small mark on the game but that experience filled me with excitement, even if I felt compelled to step away from Hyacinth Games. I wanted to strike out on my own. Here was something I loved, that fulfilled my urge to create, but that I could continue doing when I was old and grey, because no one wants to see a washed up punk rocker play in front of a bunch of kids after a certain point. Those years aren't here yet, but they're coming, and I know that.

Gaming has done so much for me as a person. Its the one social outlet I have that doesn't make me feel awkward and weird as soon as the game is set up. When I was young it helped shape my education and kept me reading and learning. The education system here in the US doesn't work well for a young anti-social, anti-establishment kid. Even today, when I gather with my punk friends, what do we do? Crack out a game. Table top games bring people together while they challenge our minds. I want to contribute to that. I want to turn some kid's world upside down. I want to design some kid's Slave Pits of the Undercity.

-Nick

Wreck-Age, Broken Contract, Zombicide, and Orks

Wreck-Age commission for an upcoming box set.

Its been months since I updated this blog. That's not to say I haven't been immersed in a multitude of hobby activities, but I haven't had a lot of time to document them. I had a little free time tonight and figured it was about time I broke my silence. Here's a smattering of what I've been up to.

More Wreck-Age commission work.

A couple weeks ago I got a call from Anton/Hyacinth Games letting me know he had a bunch of stuff he needed painted quickly and might I be interested in taking a look. I said, "Sure." and wandered over to his place - he only lives 6 blocks away. They've been quietly working away on a number of projects over at Hyacinth and these models are just a taste of what they have going on. 

That last pictured Wreck-Age tent from the back. 

I had a week to complete the models during my free time and I went a day over my deadline. These things happen right? These photos are missing the final tent, which I completed while Anton was waiting downstairs in a car to pick them up, so I never snapped a shot.They were painted to use for the box art, so I'm sure they'll post up some much fancier photos of them soon. wreck-age.net

Broken Contract uprising art by Geng Gendall.

Arguably the most involving aspect of my hobby life right now is trying to get my own miniature board game off the ground called Broken Contract. Its a sci-fi western themed board game for 2-8 players. It involves contracted workers being pushed to the brink by their corporate overlords, and their struggles against the hired security officers these overlords employ to keep the rabble working. 

Officer Hickley. Sculpted by Tim Barry.

The first model sculpted for Broken Contract is done, sculpted in 3D by Tim Barry. I can't wait to actually manufacture this guy and paint him up. The Kickstarter for this new board game is coming September 1st. In the meantime, if you want full details go check out my newly updated What is Broken Contract? page.

Me, dead in the dirt while zombies feed on my entrails, on the 4th of July.

I think everyone knows that the Zombicide Season 3 Kickstarter is going on right now. We're pretty excited about it here and my partner, Lisa, backed the KS and we check every day to see what new cool stuff we have coming. Lately I've been playing as much Zombicide as 40K.

40K never really disappears off my radar no matter what else I've working on or playing. I did try an experimental Dark Angels list last week to see if I could build a semi-competitive list for the upcoming Beef and Wing Tournament in Buffalo (Note: As a 21 year vegan that name always makes me cringe no matter how "Buffalo appropriate" it is.) As per usual, I got slaughtered, but I want to try it again. What I really want to start playing games with this year, are Orks, and a bunch of Ork Boy legs are sitting on my painting table right now. Of course, the last time I put paint on them was the week before the Codex was released and I just haven't had the time since then with the Wreck-Age commissions and Broken Contract stuff. So that's a smattering of what I've been up to the last few months Thanks for reading!

-Nick

Wreck-Age from the last Month

Wreck-Age Limited Edition Merchant.

Wreck-Age Limited Edition Barricades.

Wreck-Age Limited Edition Barricade.

Wreck-Age Limited Edition Tire Piles.

Wreck-Age Barricades

Keeping it short and sweet today. I just painted up some of the limited edition Wreck-Age Barricades from the Adepticon Exclusive Starter Set. Here they are:

Front

Back

Front

Back

What is Wreck-Age?

I've mentioned Wreck-Age a bunch of times in the last several months. I compiled this video to help show what Anton and Matt have accomplished in the last 2 years and follows into what we intend to do in the coming year. However, this may not tell you exactly what Wreck-Age is, so over the last week we crafted this explanation:

Wreck-Age is a RPG and 28mm Miniature Skirmish Wargame set in a time after the collapse of human civilization. The greed of mankind had ravaged the planet nearly to the point of destruction. The wealthy and powerful fled to the stars and left the toxic remains to fester and die. Out of desperation those who remained devolved into preying upon each other. For Generations, humanity remained on the brink, but nature is the great equalizer. The Earth has showed signs of rebirth. This new era is known as the Resurgence, and this is where your community’s tale begins.

Wreck-Age uses this post-collapse environment combined with a flexible and dynamic rule set to fuse RPG and Miniature Skirmish Wargame play. While traditional war games put almost the entire focus on combat, we've sought to emphasize non-combat Skills and mechanics to give your characters options well beyond the scope of most miniature games. The high-tech wild-west meets post-apocalypse genre mash-up creates great depth for narrative play that will appeal to a host of gaming interests.

There are many different mindsets that communities might rally around post-collapse, but we’ve chosen to focus on four for now.

-The Stakers lay claim to a parcel of land and work it any way that they can. They build stable communities and try to bring a semblance of stability to a world that is anything but.

-The Drifters are descendants of the massive pre-Exodus prison population. Drifters live life on the move and take whatever is within their reach. They are a nomadic tribal people; post-collapse barbarians.

-The Reclaimers are looking for the answers to rebuild civilization in lost technology and old data. They actively seek out the debris of pre-Exodus society for analysis. They are the tech heads and neo-archeologists.

-The Stitchmen are a secret society of medical practitioners harvesting the organs of the young and healthy to revitalize their own failing bodies. They are cruel predators, caring only for their own self-centered longevity and survival.

You have the option of building your community based on one of four current factions or you may decide to remain unaffiliated. Rest assured that the background leaves room for the development of many more.

In Wreck-Age, survival is crucial and your wits can be your best friend. And sometimes the only reward for a job well done is living to see tomorrow.

Life in Wreck-Age

The last couple of months I haven't touched much of my 40K stuff. Instead I've been totally immersed in helping out Hyacinth Games with getting a number of projects done, including trying to hash out and finalize the contents of their upcoming soft cover rule book, which the cover is going to look something like this - which is pretty bad ass:

The WIP Wreck-Age rule book. The characters featured on the cover are from the Reclaimers Faction.

Other than reading through lots of text written by Matt and Anton, and sitting with them while they assist our excellent editor, Naomi, I've been busying myself writing some text of my own for a future combined RPG and table top skirmish scenario adventure book. Here's a little excerpt of fluff from that:

The Dead Plains River Region

The Dead Plains River runs from Old Kenosha, along the edge of Switch City, down through the Joliet Penitentiary Territory, and finally merging with the Illinois and Kankakee Rivers at a Staker settlement called Pit Run. The vast majority of the Dead Plains River Region is considered to be Drifter territory, however, Staker settlements dot the waterways – some of them long established and well-defended. Other settlements come and go with the seasons as Stakers attempt to build communities, and the Drifters burn them to the ground.

The Towpath

Though motorized tugs do occasionally traverse the Dead Plains River, most of the boat traffic is in the form of small craft and pulled barges. Pulled barges rely on the efforts of pack animals to move them along. The animals, mostly boars but occasionally mules, are tethered to the barges and are led by handlers. To facilitate this process the towpath runs parallel to the river. It is well worn and used as a road by travelers like caravaneers, who ply their trade by constantly selling their goods from settlement to settlement.

River Settlements

Many settlements have come and gone over the years, but some are stable and active. Outposts like Prison’s Shadow and Pit Run have struggled to maintain order in a lawless land through violent policing. Other settlements like Rookery and Counter’s Town are merchant holds, where wealth governs all. Farming communities like Fullerton are idealistic holdings just waiting to be held for ransom or put to the torch by Drifter tribes in the region. Of course, the largest settlement is Switch City, staked upon the remains of old Chicago. It is the 2nd largest trade hub in North America and is a place where anything can be bought, and where anything can happen.

The Skit Canals

Running parallel to much of the Dead Plains are the Skit Canals, man-made overflow channels that were used to funnel off the worst of the waste products coming out of old Chicago. All of the waterways in the region are highly polluted but the Skit Canals are toxic. Only the most resilient and the most desperate life attempts to dwell there. Stakers and Drifters avoid these caustic lands but they are not uninhabited. The forgotten and discarded malformed children of the post-Exodus Midwest are left for dead along the canals. If they are lucky they will be snatched up by the other discarded that came before them. They band together in makeshift tribes. The Discarded are the lowest of the low, born with crippling maladies that should preclude any chance of survival, but somehow they persist.

Joliet Penitentiary Territory

In the years before the Exodus the incarceration rate in the United States was matched by no other country on the planet. To facilitate the massive amount of prisoners, the private prison industry escalated development exponentially. Many regions around the country shunned the enormous prisons and feared those contained within the cells, so they fought to keep them out of their cities and towns. There were pockets of prison friendly communities around the country. They were few and far between but if a community’s economy was built on their correctional facilities, it was normal for the populace to embrace all attempts at expansion and growth. Joliet was one such community. As the centuries passed the surrounding correctional facilities dwarfed the city, turning the immediate vicinity into a gargantuan prison city. Owned by an array of private prison corporations they were built next to one another so they could share resources. As the prison community grew it began to maintain its own factories and farms, and put all of that cheap labor to work in the most cost effective way possible. The corporations asserted it wasn’t slavery and the rest of the world turned a blind eye to these well utilized manufacturing centers.

Post-Exodus most of the correctional facilities have been emptied and crumbled into ruin. Much of the Midwest Drifter population comes from penitentiary cities like Joliet, and some of the most vicious Drifter tribes reign over the ruins of concrete and steel. Rumors abound of mythical functioning facilities with intact farms and crops. During the centuries before the Exodus it was common to cover buildings in roof top gardens. In the days before the Exodus no one made better use of these roof top gardens than the private prison industry. They utilized their captive labor force to produce their own food on farmland they could not escape from, several stories above the ground below.

If these farms exist they are hidden away in the most dangerous region of what was Northern Illinois. Anyone who ventures away from the Dead Plains River, off the Towpath, and into the heart of Joliet Penitentiary Territory is rarely seen again. Those who have made it back describe the most unimaginable horrors. Tales abound of companions vanishing from their group only to be found skinned alive, sputtering out their last gasps of life. Others speak of massive roving packs of dogs ripping armed explorers to shreds. Other yarns are spun of cannibalistic Drifter war bands engaging in the most heinous of blood rituals or of cobbled together vaguely human monstrosities pulling limbs clear off of their victims. Joliet Penitentiary Territory is a land of wondrous myths and dangers. The generally accepted truth is that you are more likely to find your own violent death within the Joliet Penitentiary Territory than you are to find fortune, so most travelers explicitly avoid it.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think. You can also follow the latest updates at the Wreck-Age Forums.

-Nick

Creating a Narrative Campaign Part 1: Dissecting Deception's Edge

Chad McMann was a founding member and regular participant in Nerd Night, the Chicago gaming club that separately spawned both 2ndCityWarzone and Hyacinth Games and his early 40K background pieces can be found in the earliest 2ndCityWarzone posts.

One of the key elements that differentiates Wreck-Age from other game systems is that it is intended to universally act as both an RPG and a skirmish level miniature wargame. We've been discussing ways to heighten this appeal and that led to the idea of supplements that contained all of the necessary elements to do either. Every module, packet, or whatever they eventually will be termed would come with all of the narrative, background, NPCs, adventure locations, etc that you would expect from a RPG supplement, and at the same time have all of the key encounters broken down into a scenario format more familiar to table top wargame players. The ultimate goal being that you could take or leave whatever you wanted so that you could play it out entirely table top style, or you could play it out entirely as a pen and paper RPG, or if you love both elements you could do a hybrid of the two. This will hopefully create crossover appeal for a variety of gamers and allow people to tailor their gaming experience to their own predilections.

If you've been to the Wreck-Age website you may have noticed there are 6 short stories for download for a mere $.49 each (or you can download them for free if you like). While we were gearing up for Adepticon it was discussed that it would be cool to put one or all of these short stories in an anthology for sale at the event. It never came together, but while discussing how to make such an anthology more enticing to gamers, it was suggested that we possibly include narrative scenarios and RPG material so that someone who read the story could then play out the events if they so chose.

Today I downloaded Deception's Edge by Chad McMann, a great little story that gives you some insight into how the faction known as Stitcher's function and maintain themselves. I've been well familiar with the Stitchmen for some time now and even I felt like I learned something from the story. It was a quick read, and I highly recommend taking the time to do so yourself.

As I read the story I took notes. Who would the major NPCs be? What are the key locations? How large were the forces involved and what were they equipped with? How many encounters took place that could be represented by scenarios and what would the goal of each scenario be?

Its actually a really exciting exercise. I don't want to give away the story right away, but I will say that the as you read along the narrative can be broken into four action sequences that would become scenarios. It is obvious that Newmark, Dr. Mordan, and Arthur would be the NPCs (possibly Larsen as well just because he's named), And the Stitchers appear to number about 10-14 including Golems. The Stakers would number about 20-30. I think for purposes of play-ability we'd keep the Stitchers to a maximum of 12 on the field and Stakers around 20-25.

With my framework in hand I'm now going to set about drafting up formatted scenarios and pulling text from the story to describe the principal NPCs.

Have you read Deception's Edge? What did you think?

-Nick

PS. If you're curious about how the game plays, why not download the Quick Start Rules for free?

Being Incorporated Into Wreck-Age Art

I've been quietly working on terrain for the 40K Warzone Tournament at Adepticon and haven't been blogging as much as I would like, but don't worry - its coming along. 

That's not what I've come to discuss today, however. Over the weekend I got myself wrapped up in an unexpected side project. I had seen the art for the upcoming Stakers Box Set for Wreck-Age and thought it was awesome. Not just the models, but the whole box. The borders they used and the landscape they dropped the photo of the miniatures onto - it looks fantastic. I suggested to the guys at Hyacinth Games that they box up their resin Storage Containers into a box set at a slight savings and do the same thing with the art. Anton responded, "That's a good idea, except we need three painted crates then!" I had just inadvertently volunteered myself for a very busy weekend. 

After some discussion I arranged to pick up a couple of Storage Container models on Saturday and then I engaged in a marathon painting session that lasted 6 straight hours that night and then I put in another 2 hours on Sunday. I brushed on the finishing touches (mostly sponging and weathering powders) while two thirds of Hyacinth Games were sitting in my living room eating popcorn. As soon as they were done we grabbed my girlfriend's camera and Anton shot a half dozen or so photos that were slight variations of this:

The original crate in the center took me around 20 hours to paint. I did two knock off's to match in approximately 4 hours each. I haven't painted that fast since my GW Buffalo manager days.

Now where things got really exciting for me is that today Anton e-mailed me an image that one of their artists whipped up using the storage containers I painted. I think the consensus was the art was too elaborate for the box set, but they're probably going to use it in the rule book. It came out awesome, and seeing my painted models incorporated into their art is kind of thrilling, so I wanted to share it. Here's the digital art by Kostas using my storage containers. Pretty freakin' cool!:  

Digital artistry by Kostas. Crates by me. So stoked!

Also, while I'm rambling about Wreck-Age I want to hype their upcoming Stakers box set: 

Soon to be released Stakers Box Set for Wreck-Age.

I didn't paint any of those models but I think it looks great and I'm really excited to see Hyacinth Games making progress!

Finally, I want to mention that Hyacinth Games are going a promotion where if you buy a Wreck-Age model this month, paint it, and send them photographic evidence - they will send you a free model as a reward for your efforts. Pretty cool. You can get the full details on the Wreck-Age Forum.

-Nick

Wreck-Age Glamour Shots,

These photos were all taken this afternoon by Anton Zaleski, I think they came out fantastic so I'm going to post all of them even though the cart technically isn't done yet. The first two shots are of the work in progress Boar Cart and the second 3 shots are of the Weathered Storage Container.

I hope you like them.
-Nick

Wreck-Age: Weathered Storage Container and Boar Cart.

Three weeks since my last blog post? I'm slipping. Its not that I haven't been immersed in all manner of hobby activity, but I just haven't had time to blog about it.

Though a lot of that time was spent working on Adepticon tables, I've also been involved in Wreck-Age play testing of both the table top game and their RPG. With Wreck-Age on the brain it was only natural that I painted a couple of Wreck-Age models.

Today I completed their Weathered Storage Container. I put it on a base for display purposes but obviously didn't require it and is not glued to the base. The base was purchased from Dragonforge. Here's some shots of the completed model:

I glued the doors mostly open to show the grim interior.

I'm really happy with the weathering powders near the base of the container.

 I also have this Wreck-Age Caravaneer Boar Cart ready for basing and weathering. I just ordered a properly sized base for it yesterday so now I have to wait a week or two to complete it.

This cart is awaiting a properly sized base from Dragonforge.

That's it for today. I need to get back to work on my Adepticon tables and I just got all of the new Dark Angel models in the mail so I have plenty to do. Still, I cleaned up some Wreck-Age Stakers so I plan on priming a couple and setting them on the table to get worked on between projects. For the quick updates on my WIP Wreck-Age pics you can follow my WIP thread on their forum.

As always, more to come!
-Nick