A couple more character sketches done, but otherwise nothing new to report.
Next time I get the graphics bug I will probably work on some combination uniform/standard/regiment name images, like those you know so well from the Defiant Principality (http://what-if-catalonia.blogspot.com/). To my eye, those Catalonian uniform/flag plates are extremely attractive, and also a blog-friendly way to go. For uniform templates, I expect I will use the very helpful and attractive templates from Not by Appointment (http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/).
In the meantime, the intrigue game is still, as always, very much on my mind. I am looking forward to seeing the Estrian nobility screwing each other big-time, both literally and figuratively, in the run-up to the coming electoral conclave.
In which regard, does anybody have any experience using the VASSAL game engine? In particular, has anyone ever designed modules for it?
I have downloaded VASSAL (but not installed it, since I would be running it on a different computer). It looks intimidating but potentially very flexible and possibly adaptable to an intrigue game. It seems like it can be used as a moderated PBEM game engine, and possibly also, with refinement, a stand-alone real-time online game, possibly without a moderator. Does anybody here have any thoughts/experience?
Intrigues-wise: do you read Spanish (for me I studied it during 4 years at school, but forgot a lot)? The blog Misterio en la Corte (Mystery at Court) offers an on-line unfolding novel of intrigues and adventure at Louis XIV's Court -could be inspirational for intrigues in a mid-18th C. imaginary Court.
ReplyDeleteIn English, Le Ballet de l'Acier is the on-line Journal of a RPG campaign set in Louis XIII's France; again, such swashbuckling adventures can well take place in a mid-18th C. Imagi-Nation less centralized, controlled and policed than contemporary France. When I 'mastered' a mid-18th C. campaign of this kind some.... (well, too many, anyway!) years / decades ago, I had to set it in an 'alternate' France where the Fronde had achieved some success, preventing the installation of a strong central power.
I never studied Spanish (it is not normally taught in Canadian schools) but I did have to pick it up for work. I read Spanish (and more commonly, French) mostly in my own field, where the specialized jargon makes it a technical language all its own. Outside of that limited technical sphere, I cannot claim to be fluent, but I can work through it....
ReplyDeleteSo thank you for the links, I will definitely be working my way through the Misterio and the Ballet.
Although I am keen to play out courtly actions that might not lend themselves well to the tabletop, I DO want the swashbuckling element as well. And from what I have seen, I like the look of Flashing Blades.
thanks again!