This month marks us reaching the first of our Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremonies.
Like all ceremonies, this one is virtual, but I'm going to take some inspiration from our current circumstances.
Reached Waypoint 1!
Ted Alonso
Johnny Conard
DeMonthault
Erik
Stefan Green
(Paul Hathaway)
Patrick LeFevre
Jonathan Lupton
Andy McMaster
Sergio Monge
(Harley Picurro)
Jules Tipper
<...
Or possibly the swan, if you've been following earlier posts...
But it is impossible to ignore the giant that is GW, especially in a week when they announce the release of their ninth edition of Warhammer 40,000.
How did they get so big? What was the strategy that put them in the dominant position they hold? How did I work out that they have a 97% market share? And - the biggest question of all - why, exactly, do people choose to play Warhammer 40,000 when there'...
2020-05-29 19:18:01 +0000 UTC View PostFollowing feedback from the v0.1 I shared last week, I've finalized the FAQ & Errata document with some extra points. One more errata - I realized that I hadn't mentioned that, when a character becomes OOA, they also become prone. And a couple of FAQ points that arose from my own play, recently.
Check it out. Let me know anything you think I've missed. This will be up on WGV next week.
2020-05-29 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostSome patrons are going to be affected by new laws about sales tax, passing in several countries and US states. Basically, Patreon will be required to start charging sales tax on some pledges starting July 1st.
If you're in the UK, this doesn't affect you, so you can stop reading now.
What follows is from Patreon, so those of you who support several campaigns will see this message a lot. Sorry about that:
Less than half of all p...
... serene and quiet on the surface, but paddling like buggery beneath it.
Sorry to have been moderately slow with the updates, lately. But I thought you'd like some news on what's going on with various things.
First, sales on Zero Dark are still good and, I hope, a reflection of the amount of time I'm putting into marketing them. "Good", by the way, means "not what you'd call an income, but enough to ensure that subsequent products can only get better". ...
2020-05-28 10:55:20 +0000 UTC View PostUnformatted and hot off the presses comes the first Zero Dark FAQ and Errata. The Errata is, currently, pleasingly brief. The main mistake, per se, was not making it clear how FW affects bogeys differently to characters, which was the result of FW going through several derivations during the development process.
Otherwise, errata are just short pieces of relic text that should have been removed.
FAQ does clarify the correct order in which to resolve advanced j...
2020-05-25 09:43:51 +0000 UTC View Post
This post is only visible to my Defence Mech tier patrons.
I've created a Discord for Precinct Omega. It feels like it could be a good platform for players to interact and share stuff. Hope is that we'll potentially get some group chat going, I'll maybe do some interviews and stuff, and even get some group video hobby/gaming happening.
However, I am super-new at this Discord stuff and haven't learned even 10% of what I need in order to make the Discord work how it shou...
2020-05-22 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostReturning to the microphone for another week, I pick up news from
Impact Miniatures
Azar's Dungeon Madness
Miniboss Toys
and
Rodents of the Moon
...who are all releasing products that are along the lines of "cute" or "chibi" products that are becoming increasingly popular.
Why? And does it matter?
We start our new reward scheme next month, based on patrons' lifetime contributions to the campaign, so I thought it would be good to show you an example of the Waypoint 2 reward that I painted for the last Premium Mini Draw.
This mini appears in the rulebook, so you know I like it. I don't often get to paint a mini twice, so this was cool fun to do.
Hasslefree has had some troublesome times recently, so I was pleased to support them and pleased to find that I received my order...
Go and get a cup of tea or whatever cold or hot drink floats your boat and settle on down for a chat with your favourite creator. Or, failing that, with me.
2020-05-20 16:08:25 +0000 UTC View PostGiven a surprisingly positive response to the idea of PO/ZD Stuff, I'll be running series of polls by way of market research. I'll be running them here and on FB. You should feel free to answer in both (in fact, it would be better if you did, if you're a FB user).
The purpose of the polls is for me to judge whether the cost/benefit equation of these items is worth it, based on whether I think the items in question will sell in sufficient volume.
At the moment, I am thi...
2020-05-17 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
...or possibly "pavises", depending on your definition.
Barricades
Sometimes the Red Force is prepared for the heroes. Barricades are deployed as if they were bogeys instead of deploying the bogey to which they are allocated. After the heroes have deployed, the bogey is then deployed engaged with its barricade such that it is obscured(2) from the LOS of at least two heroes. Barricades are Cyl2. A bogey eng...
2020-05-16 10:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
When I'm planning a project, I often reach out to folks with relevant products to see if they'll extend me some samples. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. But I'm always pretty clear with folks: I will probably buy their stuff anyway. Free stuff just places an obligation on me to make sure that their products get a prominent billing (although reviews are still as honest as I can make them).
WDM did not send me anything for free. This is just a bee-yootiful...
2020-05-15 11:03:43 +0000 UTC View PostIn response to patrons' feedback, we have now have a three-part podcast. It runs to 40 minutes this time, which I need to cut back on, but I just can't shut up sometimes.
Part One will be a short news item, highlighting stories from the previous week that speak towards a theme that I will expand on in...
Part Two will be a discussion of that week's theme, whilst...
Part Three will be a look at how that theme influences of affects how Precinct Omega does business.
Would you like stuff?
I'm talking T-shirts, dice trays etc? Branded with either the Precinct Omega logo or Zero Dark artwork?
Thinking is, if I can source them cheaply enough, I'd both stock them in my store (for which patrons will soon be getting an exclusive discount code!) and offer them as an alternative (or supplementary) reward for patrons.
I need to buy them for demo days, shows, videos etc, so I figured I'd see if there was interest and maybe I can get a volume...
2020-05-14 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostA treat for my patrons: an early sight of the first third of Operation Nemesis. This is very much a taster. A lot of what's inside is untested and still requires refinement, but I trust you guys to treat it accordingly.
The book is split into several sections:
New Rules
This section will also be available as a PWYW download. It will include supplementary and optional rules for Zero Dark for both the Solo/Team mo...
2020-05-12 10:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
If it was April 1st, I would definitely pretend this was actually the new Zero Dark: Operation Nemesis cover art.
Actually, I just thought you guys would like a little peek behind the curtain at the sketch I did to brief David about how I'd like the cover for Nemesis to be laid out. The heroes will have a different look, because they're Venusian (bald heads and facial tattoos). The Nemesis looms in the background, all dark and nebulous and threatening.
<... 2020-05-11 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostRe-posted, because the previous version seemed to have locked down the poll before releasing it...
I've been conscious of the lockdown taking a financial bite out of some patrons who are cancelling or reducing their support. Obviously, I have endless sympathy for this, but it does cause me to go back to check that I'm delivering what my patrons come here for.
I was wondering if patrons would be interested in more content-specific tiers? That way I can select tiers for ...
2020-05-10 08:11:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Now that the print edition is out there, inevitably I must prepare an FAQ and Errata document. There are a few errors, here and there, but they weren't enough to make me want to go through the test-copy trial yet again.
I have a few FAQs I can pick up from the FB page. But are there any questions you would like answered, edge cases I need to cover off or quibbles that I can settle, one way or the other?
2020-05-09 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostI'm starting to prep the template for the Operation Nemesis book and, for the first time, I am feeling indecisive about how to theme it.
If have three options. Interested to see which one you guys favour.
Original Theme
Hexagons are still the future.
Negative Theme
Like original, but darker. And possibly zeroer.
... 2020-05-09 10:23:50 +0000 UTC View Post
In response to your feedback, I've dramatically dialed down the "news" and focused on the "discussion".
This week: Ripping off GW. Is it wrong?
[SPOILER ALERT]
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Not really. In fact, you're probably doing GW a favour. Listen to me taking 30 minutes to say that.
2020-05-08 13:56:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Pictured minis from Zandris IV Miniatures!
States
Dismounted
Some gadgets may enter (or begin a mission) in the dismounted state. Only a mounted hero may place their mounted gadget into the dismounted state and, if they do so, the hero loses the mounted state and instead becomes engaged with the gadget. Placing a gadget into the dismounted state is an automatic action. &n...
2020-05-08 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Just in case you didn't see the news on Facebook, I thought I'd let you all know that the print-on-demand edition is finally ready and up for sale on WGV.
I promised some big discounts to my patrons a while back, based on me ordering a bunch of them and sending them on to you individually. This will happen shortly. It'll be a couple of weeks before I have my stock in, though, so if you just can't wait I've created a special 20% discount option just for my patrons:
In case you don't recognize it, that is a Proteus mech from White Dragon Miniatures and a good illustration of one reason why I have woken up having made a full U-turn on a decision I made right at the start of Zero Dark's design process. That decision was "no hero mechs".
There are several reasons I've changed my mind:
1. The evolution of the setting and the game means that it makes more sense than I thought it would at the outset. As I've fleshed out t...
2020-05-05 10:57:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I do love Star Wars day.
To celebrate, here are some (very) draft rules for including Dzedai warriors in your games of Zero Dark. The Dzedai are an order of peacekeepers from a long time ago and far, far away who wander the lanes of time and space, using their deep connection with the Eleven Dimensions to fight for truth and justice.
My plan is to expand and grow these rules every May 4th but, for obvious reasons, they will only ever be for patrons.
Dz...
2020-05-04 08:57:22 +0000 UTC View PostI came across this excellent interview with naval analyst and sci-fi enthusiast Chris Weuve about common sci-fi tropes in space combat and what they get right and wrong:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/09/28/aircraft-carriers-in-space/
It's a great summary of my dichotomy. On the one hand, I want the game to have that "hard SF" feel to it that would make it sit well in the
Willy never fit in with the Bigs. His parents had been wild types, happier in the isolated wilderness than inside the walls of the city-states, defying the law and the hunter drones.
Only when their sickly, tiny child was born did they surrender to the nearest city-state of London.
But although they welcomed the medical support that kept Willy alive, they still rejected the culture of the city-states and retreated to the dark, forgotten corners of the deep city.
There, W...
The dice have spoken!
This month's winner of the Premium Monthly Mini Draw is Paul Hathaway! Paul won the Random Mini Draw last month and hasn't replied to my last message asking for his postal address, so if you see this, Paul, please check your messages.
And the winner of the Random Mini Draw is Harley Picurro, who wins the Heresy Miniatures sci-fi trooper pictured above (unpainted and unassembled).
2020-05-01 17:32:34 +0000 UTC View PostSo it turns out that Patreon doesn't like the Monthly Mini Draw. The word "r*ffle" gets them excited (the * is because, if I use the word in a post, they get really excited) because it pulls them into conflict with laws and stuff around the world. And although raffles of this sort are completely fine in the UK for charitable purposes, it's kind of, um, illegal for commercial purposes.
So the Monthly Mini Draw for May will the last one. But I'm g...
2020-04-30 17:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Having had pretty positive feedback on my Fireside Chat and Why Patreon? videos, and needing more audio expertise to improve the voiceovers on my future demo videos, I thought I'd branch out and try starting a podcast.
As ever, patrons get first dibs. As it's supposed to be a weekly news podcast, though, this will probably be the only one you'll get more than 24 hours' early access on! But I thought I'd post it here to get your thoughts and feedback on the content and presen...
2020-04-30 13:48:05 +0000 UTC View Post