Author: Aron Clark

Littorally

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The USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) represented in the game

Inspiration

Sometime in 2022 I stumbled across an interview with Sebastian Bae discussing his upcoming wargame Littoral Commander; a wargame set in a near future Indo-Pacifc. I was fascinated and promptly ordered a copy from the Dietz Foundation.

Shake Down Cruise

In 2023 I hosted my first game of Littoral Commander for 6 players at Pacificon, a local tabletop game convention I’ve been attending since the 80s.

All 7 of us had a very enjoyable 4 hour session, learning the game, experimenting with the mechanics, and many of us ready to play again. One interesting component of the game is the tracking of hits and resources associated with each unit / counter, which is done in the core game with cards and cubes. I found that particular aspect to be a bit cumbersome, while really appreciating the unique resources of each unit.

The outset of our first game

At the Ready

Rather than give up on the game for being “too fiddly” I was convinced that these details could be better managed on paper. It has taken me some time to return to the concept, but requests to play Littoral Commander have inspired me to action.

I have created a Google Sheet (linked here) here that can produce a paper roster for any given scenario and task force. Hits and resources for any given unit can be tracked using a simple checklist model.

Sample roster from the Luzon Pass scenario

da’Worm & Co.

Aron Clark5 Comments
yep, this is a thing. . .
Painted sample by R. Wheeler

What’s all this, then?

I’m very pleased to announce a new line of miniatures, which I’m affectionately referring to as da’Worm & Co. I’ve always wanted Wormy miniatures and none were ever produced, so I’ve made my own.

Set 01 is priced at $40 each + at cost shipping ($9 for domestic US) and includes:

  • Wormy himself with cigar and pool cue options
  • Ace, cyclops
  • Hambone, cyclops hound
  • Irving da‘Imp

Contact me by September 28th to place your order, after which time no additional orders will be accepted. That means Set 01 is available in very limited quantities.

Please note: this is strictly a fan based – at cost effort, and offered for direct sales only. Funds raised will recover sculpting and casting costs, any remaining funds will be used to produce additional masters for this line, which again will be sold at cost. Shadow cat anyone?

These miniatures are hand sculpted, cast in metal, and are designed to scale with classic 25mm and modern 28mm miniatures. Photos should provide a good sense of scale.

Set 01 Assembled
Compared w/ 25mm Grenadier
Compared w/ 32mm Warduke
Contents of Set 01
Painted by M. White
Irving w/ kit bashed nose and teeth, by M. White

Newsletter

To keep our supporters up to date we now have a newsletter distributed via e-mail and archived here.

Newsletter 01.pdfDownload
Newsletter 02.pdfDownload
Newsletter 03.pdfDownload
Newsletter 04.pdfDownload

County Road Z1ed

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Still from “Return of the Living Dead” – Prisma Gothic filter

…2022

I stumbled on miniature game County Road Z being played in 15mm at Pacificon. I quickly sourced the rules and set them aside for a someday project.

…2023

Again at Pacificon, flea market delivered a large zombie wargaming collection in 15mm and I committed to hosting a game soonest.

…2024

I studied the rules, prepared a quick reference, and hosted a game for friends at Kublacon.

…today

The following are on offer in a workbook that collects:

  • a quick reference
  • an X / Y sheet
  • a random survivor generator
  • a 3×5 character card

Some thoughts

County Road Z (CRZ) is a fine little game from a first time indie publisher, Jordan Heckman – Earthbound Games. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

CRZ at its heart is a solo or co-op miniatures wargame; but I can see room here for multiple players participating in something closer to an RPG.

Game play is nicely segmented into a tactical game of fighting off the living dead and a strategic game of resource management.

There is a virtual tabletop version! No miniatures, no space, no time – no problem – play online when you can.

My copy of the rules and supporting assets are based on v1 and should be compatible with the latest Modipus version, v2.

v2 is described as being a new layout for the same core rules, but with new settings – equipment – monsters – and so on.

I’m unlikely to pick-up the latest version of CRZ, but feel free to get in touch and request any edits that are linked to v2.

Five-O

Aron Clark3 Comments

Fifty – I’m Fifty

Today I’m celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. I’m 53 myself this year and my experience with the game goes back over forty years. It’s strange to consider how this one game of imagination has impacted me on the whole, and I’ve written some about that here:

A Gift

My fascination with The Lichway adventure continues and today I’m happy to release a new copy edit of the adventure. Tomorrow I’ll run this adventure for a friend’s birthday celbration.

You can download this copy edit here.

Original art by James Richards

Print Copies

The last of the print copies were distributed at North Texas RPG Con ‘25. There is a small chance that there are still a few copies still at Black Blade Publishing. That means there are 99 copies in circulation + my own personal copy. There are no plans for another print run.

Acknowledgement

My own copy edit of The Lichway is not the first, there is a very fine effort from 2023 which you can find here. Please let me know if there are other such efforts so they can be linked here.

Get Ready to Play – Salute of the Jugger / Blood of Heroes

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Ruger Hauer – Blood of Heroes still; Prisma Udine filter

Wait a minute…

Salute of the Jugger is the original name of the cult favorite – Blood of Heroes? Apparently it’s true and all these years I’ve been denied 10 minutes of this sci-fi cultural phenomena. Bah, another botched US release.

I hadn’t thought about Blood of Heroes in a long, long while; but today Alessandro Piroddi released a play-test version of Torque Arena. Skimming the design log, “this sound great!” Download the pdf:
“Yes, yes, interesting.”
“Ok I want to try this.”
”Hmm… what miniatures could I use.”
“Nothing in the collection that’s really suitable – drat, that’s going to take me a while to got to the table.”

Sudden Inspiration

Steeling my nerve for a web search for suitable post apocalypse miniatures, I wondered if I could find any standees like the old Steve Jackson Cardboard Heroes. Then quickly realized I could just make some:

  • Image search for “post apocolypse standees”, saving 10 suitable full body images – I opted for teams of men and women
  • Convert the image to black and white, “lift the subject from iOS Photos App”, saving it as it’s own unique photo
  • Load the lifted image to iOS Prisma App and apply the Udine filtered – applying filters like this can help give disparate images a common look and feel
  • Layout 20x40mm standee template in iOS Curve App, which I’m using for technical drawing
  • Drop the new filtered and lifted subjects into the standee template, et voila

You can grab these custom standees here, or try your hand at the same. What follows is a brief photo journal of the process. I will report back here on my progress with the play test. Thanks Alessandro for sharing your ideas with us!

I’ll report back soon on my play-test experience.