The Miscast Minute 001

Welcome to The Miscast Minute, the bi-weekly newsletter which will be arriving to you via Patreon-Post every Monday and Thursday. It's a concoction of behind the scenes info, creative tips and challenges, recommendations… and well, whatever else you want to see included. So let's kick it off with 001.

The Artifact Cards

I gave you a sneak peak last week of a project I’ve been working on with my friend and artist Elisa Buonadonna but what’s the go with that? The deck of cards functions as a standard deck, but there’s also a handful of non-standard cards and that’s where things get fun. The concept is that the cards are a mysterious artifact, maybe meddled with by wizard's magic during a game.

This first prototype needs tweaking. Elisa and I have decided to texture the cards to make them look worn and older – at the moment they just look too clean cut and flat. I also printed most of these cards with a magenta back but I much prefer the turquoise test card so that will be changed for the next prototype deck.

As for the packaging I'm not sure whether I'll go with the drawstring bag or a box. A bag might be more magical but a box could look more polished.

Within the next month I'll be texturing each card then will reorder. Once the prototype is good to go, I'll be looking at how to get this product out in the wild which may be through either preorder or Kickstarter.

Concept to completion is many steps and it takes patience to see something pay off which is maybe why I'm always working on too many projects at once.

You may notice in each video little improvements are made around the studio. The latest project I’ve been working on with my dad is adding a kitchenette/coffee area to the studio.

The idea behind the kitchenette was to use recycled materials from around the place, buying minimal new materials. I just needed a place to make a coffee and store two minute noodles and snacks.

I'm very lucky to have such a multi-skilled Dad who loves to help out. My dad has always had a DIY attitude. Back in the day if he didn't know how to do something, he'd get a friend to teach him or he'd research it himself and give it a go, making him a wealth of knowledge.

Citadel's Black Templar contrast paint is my go to for base trims. I'm a quick and dirty painter, so having a nice clean base trim is important to make the model look complete. The unique properties of Citadel's contrast paint allows it to blend nicely if I get it anywhere it's not meant to go and blends any flock/ground cover that might have spilled over the edge. I typically only have to do two coats to get good, even coverage.

Arcane Ugly is my Tabletop RPG I've been creating, currently in beta. More info at arcaneugly.com.

I've been getting amazing feedback, here and on discord. I've just finished fixing the mountain of spelling/grammar errors thanks entirely to amazing team on discord and now we're solving a bunch of playtesting issues that just don't hit right.

We've found the biggest problem is Adventurers have been too squishy or unbalanced compared to the rest of party. Initially this was by design and worked great in my group but in other Gamesmasters groups it doesn't sit right with all players.

I really enjoy this part of the process, I love making little tweaks and trying to make things FEEL good especially if we can make the solution an elegant one.

In this case we've updated the HP rules from:

HIT POINTS

Your Hit Points (HP) represent how much physical and mental trauma you can withstand before you die. Your Hit Points are d8+2.

To

HIT POINTS

Your Hit Points (HP) represent how much physical and mental trauma you can withstand before you die. Your Hit Points are 7. If your Strength is 2 or more, add +1 Hit Points. If your Dexterity is 2 or more, add +1 Hit Points.

The new rules solve our problem but like so-often the case, these solutions bring new bonus side effects that make things feel better too. Now athletic characters and non-athletic characters have more distinction and somewhere inbetween as well.

The Helping Hand Table is also getting a 1,2,3,4 entry, so if a character rolls all Abilities of 1 they'll ALWAYS get something cool to make up for it even if they don't roll doubles.

As for new content I've nearly completed the first draft of familiar rules. They work a little bit like creating a mini Adventurer. After that, it's extra curricular activities for Adventurers between adventuring which I'm hoping will solve all sorts of questions like: unlocking more spells, increasing Abilities, inventing potions etc.

And inbetween somewhere, I need to make some quick and dirty healing rules to make dangerous situations a little bit more tactical.

Come join on discord if you haven't already!

I think the best creator on YouTube right now is Beau Miles, an Australian filmmaker who has perfected the art of storytelling. Beau's insights are both funny, and profound. I finish watching every video inspired and motivated and wanting to better myself and the world around me. Beau's videos mostly revolve around putting himself in difficult situations to make new discoveries about himself and the things that matter to him. You can start with any video, and you'll be hooked! Beau has inspired me a lot in the last year or so.

Find him here.

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The Miscast Minute - brought to you by Trent and Rachel. Have a suggestions for what you’d like to see? Let us know!

Oh and Q&A is coming up hot so get your questions in asap.