Movie Tone News, April 2020

Welcome to this months news in which I want to talk about a question most elegantly put by Ivor in the comments of the last post, Do you 'storyboard' photos ideas a head of time or are you Indiana Jones-ing it & make it up as you go ?

The simple answer is yes :) I'll explain, The Hex campaign is run along the lines of different things, first came the idea of what I wanted to do & up until the ruins that part was verily clear, with the opening couple of episodes been written  first & pictures taken & added.
The plane episode was a game played out which gave the unseen event of Bill running away, so that meant I'd to come up with away of getting him back into the story, which is like making it up as you go, rolling dice to decide the story will do that for you :)

So I've now done both for what Ivor asked to get this far, so I then carry on as far as the ruins which was the next game played out & really was only as far as I had the story mapped out to, the hope was that some event in the game might drive the story forward, but the dice been what they are didn't comply with that & tbh I came a bit stuck as to how to carry on hence the big delay.

My first thought was to have Bill figure out away in which the group got the plane up & running, but that didn't really fit well with what I wanted, as it turned out the sets & props team were working on a new set which you've seen parts of in the last episode & while taking some photos I came up with the way forward that has giving what is I hope a clear path to the end of the campaign,

But in that episode I also added a new way of doing things, in that I took some pictures & then wrote up the story until they came out on the other side of the sea & then a game was played out to rescue the children, but here I done some thing else that I never done before.
The game called for 14 makers on the board, now when it comes to using makers I try to come up with other ways of doing things as I don't want makers in the photos, but with this many on what was only a 2 foot by 2 foot set I was at a lost.

Anyway I wanted to push on & decided I play out the game, first take went horrible wrong with the T-rex turning up before any of the beasts which were standing in for raptors.
To try & avoid the same thing happening again I added another token which meant there was now 15 of them, & played out the game, taking photos as I went, & while playing out the game I hit on an idea, what if after the game instead of using the in game photos I staged manged the scenes ?

Tbh this is a god send to me as for a long time I've stayed away from doing certain things or tried to do them in different ways, but this way of doing it means I can just play out the game as its meant to be & then just re-shoot the parts of it I want to use :)
I hope that answers your question Ivor & maybe is of some use to you guys, below are a couple of pictures to show what was done.

This picture was added after the episode had been scripted. 

This one was taken before the script was written.

                                                       

In game photo

Photo of the same thing that you seen in the last episode

In other news, I getting near the point were the studios can start doing what I'll call Mobs & Dolls movies that will take place in the fictional city of New Dublin & the surrounding areas, New Dublin is much like Dublin, only the politicians are more corrupt, I did say it was fictional right :)

In late news, never one to let the grass to grow under his feet Mr Panama is also looking at way to brake into the radio media, more on that in next months news, so plenty to look forward to coming up as well as the conclusion of the Hex campaign.

Well that's it for this month's news   , so its a goodnight from me & a goodnight from him :)
As always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.

HEX Campaign, The Children

The start of this story can be found here https://nickelandimeproductions.blogspot.com/2019/04/hex-campaign-knock-on-door.html

Grace's mood was grown darker by the day, as near as she could guess its been about 2 weeks since the fight with the Germans at the ruins, but who could tell in this place of no night or day, the time immediately had past fast as Tom, John, Ronld & herself along with some of the natives had headed to the river in search of the Germans, only to find their U-boat gone.

Unperturbed they'd followed the river for what they estimated was about 30 miles until it opened out into a sea, finding no sign of the Germans along the way.
Although they could see land on the horizon they had no way of crossing the sea, so at a deadend they headed back to the village which was now their home, what keep their spirit up on the trek back was the hope that the Scorpion had returned, for without it, it now seemed they would be stuck here forever.

The Scorpion had not returned though & the group were perplexed as to what to do next, as not to be a burden on the villagers resources & to pass the time Grace, Tom & Bob help out with things like hunting & croup gathering, while Jenny Bill & Gregory spent most of their time at the ruins, which was just as well as it was there that they found their way to move on.

Bill, with a grin like a Cheshire cat "I think I found away to cross the sea which doesn't involve been on a boat & running the risk of getting eaten"
Building a boat to cross the sea had been the first thoughts but as any boat they could build would be to small to stand an attack from any of the larger sea creatures, they'd dropped the idea almost at once.
Grace, her mood starting to lift at the thought of been able to continue the search for her friends, "Ok you coy old fox don't keep us waiting spit it out.
Bill explained how he believed that from his exploring of the ruins that there was an underground passage that linked the land here to the land across the sea, they would need to speck to the beastmen to find out if they knew anything about it & if they could help.

At first the elder of the beastmen refused to talk with them about it, but with Roald intervention & given the fact the group had helped them out against the Germans they finally relented, it turned out that Bill was indeed correct in that there was a passage across that their ancestors use to use to trade with others of their kind on the far side of the sea, but they had to close it off as the red beastmen who lived on the other side became more aggressive.

The passage they told them was closed off by a great door that has not been open in many life times, but they agreed to let them try to cross accompanied by one of their kind, so that if the door could be opened he could close it off once again behind them.

Roald had decided not to go with them & bid them farewell at the ruins, Grace as were they all was saddened by this news as they all thought of Roald as a good friend.
Grace, as they were parting" Are you sure you won't come with us ? as it might be your only chance to find away home"

Roald"I'm sure Grace, I think in some kind of a strange way I've come to think of this place as home & as I've no family in the world above I've no real reason to go back"
Tom" Well thanks once again for all of your help Roald" & turning to Grace said " Come on its time to get going"
As Roald turned away Grace & Tom followed the others who were lead by Uk-got into the opening.

How long their journey through the passage way under the sea took none of them could guess,

but they were all relieved to find that the great door opened as easily as it had the day it had been built & a short time after they stepped out once again into the twilight of this strange world.

As Uk-got turned & headed back into the dark the group found they where high up on a ledge, looking down on a valley with a river & what looked like some kind of settlement on the far side.

As they made their way down the cliff face they notice there was groups of children moving around on the ground below, but no sooner had they set foot on the valley floor when the sound of a loud horn rang out, at this some of the children started to make their way towards a bridge that crossed the river while others seemed to panic.
Jenny" There must be something wrong, we'll better try & help these kids"
The group split up & started for the kids,but the kids seemed spooked & backed away from them.

As Grace tried to assure some of them, Bob spotted what was the cost of the panic, as some kind of fierce beast appeared from the foliage in front of him. 

Quickly un-slinging his rifle Bob let off two shots with one of them slamming into the beast's chest, but still it charged forward, it took Bob all of his courage & years of military experience not to turn & run & standing to he fired off another couple of shots out of which hit the beast's head bringing it to a stop just as it was on him. 

After directing the group of kids over to Jenny & Gregory, Grace noticed one of the children had climbed upon a rocky outcrop & started to climb up, no sooner had she reached the top when she noticed Bill been chased by one of the foul creatures, whipping out her pistol she fired off a couple of rounds missing the target & could only watch on helplessly as it gored at Bill.

Try as he did Bill was no match for the beast & Grace could only watch on in horror at what was unfolding below her, then Bill with the blood steaming from a nasty leg wound & starting to tier from  the onslaught he felt a slight shudder under his feet, the beast must have noticed it as well, for to Bill's amazement & relief it broke off its attack & darted away.

Just as Jenny & Gregory were leading the first of the children to the safety of the bridge the reason for the break  off of the attack by the beasts reviled its self .

With a mighty roar a T-Rex burst into view close to were Grace was trying to shepherd some children towards the bridge, from his vantage point Bob opened fire, followed by Tom on the ground, but the bullets seemed to have little or no effect on the monster.

The speed of the brute had to be seen to be believed as it quickly covered the ground on Grace who had keep herself between it & the children, lowering it's massive head it snapped at Grace.

Luckily it's aim was a bit off but the teeth racked across Grace's back & as the pain exploded in her she fell to the ground.

This proved to be the saving of Grace but the dooming of the children.

Although horrified by what he witnessed, Bob keep firing away, this brought his attention to it giving the rest of the children & the rest of his group apart from Grace, time to reach the safety of the bridge.
As the T-Rex reach the outcrop Bob climb down on the opposite side & for the next while had to engage in a game of cat & mouse with it, known that any slip up would cost him his life.   

Getting feed up with the game the T-Rex soon headed off in search off a meal some place else leaving Bob free to head over to where Grace had falling.
While badly hurt Grace with Bob's help was able to gain her feet & with his help they crossed the bridge to where the others were waiting.

To be continued

Designers note, I'm not going to go into details in this note as there are thing I want to cover in the next news, so I'll leave it at saying its great to have this back up & running after what was a longer then expected break.
As always my thanks for dropping in & if you want to be a movie critic & leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

Movie Tone News March 2020

Hello & welcome to this months news, let me begin but saying I hope you're all keeping well in these dark days as the world battles C19.
One thing the studio has want for a long time is an office for Chip, as all P.I's need to have one.

This I started months back & then put it on the long finger for a while, I also added a wc to it.

All offices need a hallway leading to them, so I did one of them as well.

Like all sets I build I like them to have more then one uses o the office,

so this one doubles up as a hotel-room.

On the other side of the hall way is another set, which can be a little pub, cafe,

or even a shop, now both of these sets need some more fleshing out but I'm sure you guys get the idea.

Yes you guessed it, it another shoebox.

In other news you might remember this from a while back ?

                                
To do this set the way I had it planed would have been a hell of a lot of work,

so for the time been I've gone down a different road with it.

I've added this picture to let you see these letter on the building, which I pick up in a craft shop, there made of wood & very cheap but are great for adding detail.

This view is from the side of the set, also as I know some of you guys have a thing for blurry pictures I thought I add one :)

That's not the end of this set btw, as the board is removable.

With the other side done like this, just a single road & factory space.

Look around any city with a river & you'll see lots of different setting as the river makes it way along, the picture below has the board remove & show the cobblestones of the original design, with a factory front used to block off the rest of the board.

As you can see we've not been ideal here at N&D studios, but there's more, not wanting to leave all the crime solving to Chip & Tasha we've brought in some boys & a girl in blue, guess you could call them the quay stone cops :)

We've also added a few from over seas

Not enough been done you say ? well here's another set that's a wip

As you all know all work & no play leads to Jake going mad, so with that in mind I've been busy with Spacehulk

In space they say no one can hear you scream, but in Spacehulk there's a lot of it even if it can't be heard.
In these days of self isolation & social distance N&D wants to show solidarity, so here's Chip doing his bit. 

Well that's it for this months news, so its a stay safe from me & a stay safe him.
As always my thanks for dropping by & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed :)

Dress Rehearsal, I'm looking for clues

Awhile back my good friend Mr Vagabond owner of the ryval Penny Farthing  studios asked "How does a studio go about making a good detective movie ?"

Now he's just released his first one which can been seen here http://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-detective-game-retrieving-grimoire-of.htm.

I hope after watching the movie (Good wasn't it ?) you've returned, I'll assume you have & carry on as good detective movie is something that N&D have also been striving to produce if a some what different kind, now we've released a couple in the pasted with Chip Spud & Tasha Stripvo & while happy with them they haven't quite been as I'd have liked, so were doing some dress rehearsals trying some new things.

Now after a lot of investment in time & money we've some new ideas in the pipeline to try & make things better, now the script team come up with all sort of wonderful idea's (reads different rule sets) & then it's up to our chief script writer Doug Mitten to pick what he things will work best.

 As it happens we're trying out some of the ideas right now, in a case involving Chip & Tasha, Chip has got a phone call from a wealthy lady who's husband has gone missing while carrying out what she calls his indiscretions & has gone out to her house to get more details.

Designer note, I'm trying out a few new things which when needed will be explained in captions below the pictures.

While at the house Chip learns from the chauffeur that he dropped the Master off at Queen Square las night.

Chip is talking to the Chauffeur, normally when interaction with someone to get information it would require a question test, but at this is the start of the case & we need to give Chip a lead as to where to start no test is required.

As he's talking to the Lady of the house he notices the remains of a piece of paper in the dying amber's of the fire, could this be a clue ?

To try to get this clue Chip takes a Brains test set against a difficulty rating, how this works is to set the difficultly I roll 2d6 & pick the lowest, if you wanted to try make the test harder you could pick the highest or you could just per set the test if you wanted,  then roll 3d10 for the person using their brains stat, each dice score which together with the brains stat that is 10 or more is a success, then roll 3d10  for the difficulty with any roll  when added to the difficulty rating that is 10 or more been a success, to solve the clue you have to get more brains successes then difficulties successes.

 Reaching in he plucks out the paper' on it he can make out some of the letters  from two words, igh
& Ros.

Given that Queen Square is a well known red light area & the missing person has a liken for what his wife calls indiscretions plus what was on the paper Chip deducts that the missing person went to meet someone last night in the area possible called Rose, his next call will be Queen Square but its to early to go there, so he'll return to his office & make a few phone calls.

Chip arrives at Queen square & as he thought the girls are about.

He heads over to the closest & shows her a picture of the missing man, but gets nothing more from her then a look at her credentials.

Here Chip takes a brains test trying to get information from the women, Chip is a grade 3 character & rolls 3d10 for the test, his brains is 5 so he will be looking for 5+ on each roll, the woman is grade 1 NCP so will roll 1 d10 , her brains is 2 so she'll need 8+, if Chip win the test by 2 or more she'll give him some information, so Chip would need to roll at least 2 5+ & hope the woman doesn't roll a 8+, if she did then Chip would  need all of his dice to be 5+ , if he wins by 1 or if it a draw nothings happens,  if the woman should win she'll attack him, in this test Chip won by 1.

He bids her goodnight & moves toward the next girl,

In this case the man is a PEF, how this works is at the start of the scene there will be given the day time & the location a set number of PEF's  that might or might not come into play, the area is divided into 9 equal parts & as Chip move from one part to another I roll a d8, if the d8 score is less then the area number then a PEF will come into play.

but before he reaches her a man approaches him from across the street.
Man " Chip Spud ? Chip nods as the man continues " Tony the book sent me, he's noticed your account is heavily in the red & wants to know when your going to paid up ?"

Right a PEF has turned up now what ? to decide what it is I role 3d10 using Chips grade 3 as the the base number, if Chip rolls 2 or more 7'+ its an enemy if not its a NCP who Chip may or may not interact with, in this case the men turned out to be a NCP, so the next time a PEF turns up I'll add 1 to Chip's base score  and will keep doing so until a PEF turns out to be an enemy.

Chip "Things have been a bit quite lately but I've got a case now so tell him I should be able to fix up in the next few days"
Man "Ok I'll tell him that but don't have me to come looking for your again" & with that he turns & walks away.
Chip shrugs his shoulders & walks on. 

The next girl has nothing to offer, apart from something he neither wants or can afford, so he carries on down the other side of the square, as he reaches the parked car two man get out, one has a knife the other a baseball bat.

Here the PEF turns out to be an enemy so a brains test is taken by all characters to see in what order they will act., for this test they all roll 1d10 & add the score to  their brains stat, with the highest score going first followed by the next highest, with any draws been rolled off.

Man with the knife" We'd like a word with you"
Not liking the look of the men or their manner, Chip lashes out with the lead-sock he carries in his pocket for such occasions & drops the man with the knife.

Chip wins the roll off so goes first & hits the guy on the left knocking him to the ground, this means his mate will have to take a guts test.

Seen his mate go down like a ton of bricks, the tug with the club decides he wants no part of this & takes to his heels.

Having failed his guts test the tug move 2d6 away from Chip & will keep doing so until he either passes the test or leaves the table.

As Chips watches him tear off down the street he hears a groan from the guy laying on the pavement, he reaches down, grabs him up & slams him against the car.
Chip" Who sent you & what does he want ?"
Man "Nobody sent us we ju...
Chip" Don't give me that, now talk unless you want more of the sock"
Man "Ok Diamond John sent us, he said we were to have a word to stop you asking questions"
Chip giving the guy a couple of slaps across the face,"Why"
Man "I don't know, he just said to stop you he didn't say why"

With the other guy gone Chip is free to try to interrogate the man, had his mate stuck around & hit Chip he would have been able to join in the fight this turn, the interrogation test works like the question test except that its brains stat against willpower  stat.

Chip" Right, well tell him he to send a better messenger next time, now scram  before I lose my temper"
As the guy jumps into the car & takes off Chip walks down to the next girl & taking out the picture asks " Did you having to see this guy around here last night ?"
Girl looking at the picture "Maybe"
Handing her a five note Chip " Do you want to tell me who he was maybe with ?"
Girl" He was with Jessie"
Chip" Is Jessie around tonight ?
Girl" I an't seen her' but she's a good friend of Molly's who over by the statue, maybe she can tell you where she is"

This time Chip wins the question test by 2 so gets some information from the woman.

                                                                                                                                                                    Chip thanks her for the help & goes over to Molly. taking out another five he asks " Any idea  were Jessie might be tonight ?" Molly I'll be your Jessie if you want"

Chip" Thanks but that not what I'm looking for" & handing her the five " I just want to ask her some questions"

Molly" You the law ?"

Chip "If I was would I have giving you the five ?"

Molly " Guess not, she's over the road in the Blue Rossi"

If you remember the piece of paper Chip pulled out of the fireplace ? written on it was igh & Ros which Chip thought might be Rose.

Chip Thanks her & heads across the road to the bar.

In order for Chip to get to the Blue Rossi he need 3 pieces of information, having solved the clue in the fireplace it meant he only needed another 2 from the 5 women at the square or from any NCP's that might turn up & yes it is possible that he might not have done so.

Inside its not to busy & as Chip looks around this stunningly attractive woman ( well at least she would be if I was any good at painting ) walks over to him.
Chip"Jessie I take it ?"

Here we have the last test of the piece the seduction test, which again is a brains test against willpower, 

Jessie" Yes, but how did you know ?"
Chip" I've been looking for you & Molly told me you were in here, I'd like to talk to you about the man you were with last night ?
Jessie"I see but not here follow me"
She leads Chip over to a room off the bar &

 been A Femme Fatale Jessie has the upper hand in the test by way of abilities.

`as he steps inside his whole world goes dark.
Cut.

Designer note again, any of you that ever played a THW game will notices a similarity between the above  & their rules & that's because a lot of it was based around their rules but modified to suit what I want, first to go had to be the Rep system as I'm not a fan of it, as it means a character who good at one thing is good at most everything & like wise if their bad.

Now as I mentioned at the start of this post John over on his wonderful blog had just done his first detective game & it was in every sense of the word a detecting game a classic who done it, that is not what I was after here, what I wanted was more your hard boiled pulp P.I in the shape of a Sam Spade or Phil Marlowe & by & large I think I got more or less what I was trying for, not perfect yet but getting there, time to do a full movie to know for sure.

Another thing I want to talk about is sets, now as I'm sure a lot of you might know I'm not your normal gamer as I'm more interested in the story then the game, I'll explain that a bit more as it also help give insight to the use of sets, now most people will set up a gaming table & play out their games on it, if there are say building they may or may not use the inside of the building, but everything will take place on that table.

While yes in the above I had a table set up I also had to the side of it two sets, one for the inside of the house at the start & another for the inside of the Blue Rossi, if I was doing this in full it might well have started inside of Chip's office & might even have involved some one trailing him in a car as he drove out to the house or on his way back depending on the two PP's that was covered in the last movie tone news.

This type of gaming is very similar to RPG gaming & would not be for everyone as most people just want to set up their table & get on with their game, but as you most likely figured out from all the clues by now I'm not everyone :)


That's a wrap for this post as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.