Thank you to Steve for the inspirational comment "He's missing a laser pistol. 🔫 😉". Thanks!
A fancy version.
Its been a bit, I have been busy and frankly, not really feeling RPGs much lately. Perhaps this will change. Made a simple map.
For those needing a GM ready map (eg, Vance or Shane), here you go.
Also, for Tim, who is always afraid he will anger the gods of printer ink, sans background.
Gosh, way way back in 2017 I made this zine. This was the year I retired from the Army and in August I took a new job, essentially the COO for a medical device startup. - serious money (like twice my Army salary) but also 10x the stress, global travel, managing the US operations for the company). Life suddenly became hectic and this project like so many others fell to the wayside. In digging around and looking at Star Wars options I came across this and though I should probably drop it on itch.io so others could see it. I really had a great time writing this one and putting it together with art, planets, maps, and NPCs. I even managed to run a few sessions in this setting before the world caught up with me.
I simply love the space pulpy feel of dashing heroes saving damsels (and worlds!) from vile evildoer scientists bent on world domination.
Ok, I admit I am a Star Wars fan, always liked it far better than Star Trek's bizarre utopian dream that always seemed far less possible than space knights with laser swords. Call me silly. Anywhos, I have been running around the last few weeks reading this RPG, that one with the sexy cover, one over there, these two here....trying to something simple I could use for my solo gaming, but also something robust and loose enough that it could encompass the world of Star Wars.
And just to be clear here, Star Wars to me is in reference to the original three films, plus Rogue One and to a degree, Solo. The rest of that nonsense does not exist. In my SW world, Leia was perfect and beautiful, loved Han with all her heart, Han was a scoundrel with a heart and would die for his friends, Luke was an incorruptible brave warrior who knew that he could not just sit around while the Empire tormented all the people.
So I have been in a quandary the last few weeks what to do. No system I looked at: Black Star, WEG d6, ICRPG, Fate Accelerated, Tiny Frontiers, etc etc etc seemed to fit my needs. So, I gave up.
Then today while out on my deck listening to the rain I suddenly had a thought. Why not just use White Box? James Spahn made White Star, which has many bits that are SW with the serial numbers rubbed off, even then I do not think I even need that much. This got me to thinking why I like White Box for my solo games, what draws me to WB? It is a simple, straightforward chassis to run games. I also feel it is easily malleable into whatever genre you might want. What is Han Solo, but a rogue with a particular set of skills. Luke, a cleric maybe? In any case, for me the first thing is visualization. So what to do?
So I made White Box Star Wars character minicards!
I have finished the Willowford map and uploaded to Itch.io for download, the file is available in jpg and pdf, is free (or toss me a buck if you insist). I hope you like it, and yes, my little band of dogooders will be venturing here soon!
I have been working on a rework/update of the Willowford map that was used in Jamee Spahn's White Box Omnibus book that included the Willow Valley Gazetteer. I thought I would post an in-the-works image so you could see where I was at. I ended up rotating the map slightly so that I could add a little bit more of the forest tree is south east and add a small lake. You can see the original map behind the original as a template so I can make sure I get all of the locations correct.
This blows my mind. I have been spelunking with just a flashlight, scraping on my belly, climbing over cliffs, tromping through pools of cave water, but this, this gives you an idea of the horror our adventurers would experience.
Some photos from the video:
Imagine doing this with only torches and things hunting you for dinner.
Mind.
Blowing.
Played around a little today to make more White Box Monster Cards. I had them in season 1 and people comments how they liked them. I like the visual connection (e.g. something tangible maybe?) on the table in front of me.
These have all original artwork made in Mid-Journey. I am really enjoying MJ in practice, just wish I could somehow teach it that hobbits/halflings wear no shoes and have large feet. Come on!
My pal James and his wife Robyn (what a lucky fella to have a wife into the hobby!) released a new RPG called Mydwandr (drivethru link) the other day and I wanted to give it a try. I wanted a pure black & white character sheet so I could print out a bunch, so I threw a couple together. Click the image to download the PDF for home printing.
The infamous 'Brave Halfling' from our first season of adventure, he has proven himself in the face of danger against TWO trolls and survived. Now he has a taste of adventure, he wants more!
Things have begun. Thanks to Steve for some inspiration last night that helped spur the creative process. I drew up a map after Erik called me out in his video, its a map of Burrownmoor, the small halfling village where my YT solo play takes place (click here to view my channel). I decided I am going to flesh it out a little, that way anyone using the Willow Valley Gazetter in James Spahn’s White Box Omnibus will have an additional map they can use for their games. I am also toying with updating the Willowford map as the original map was drawn prior to 2012. I may even contact James to see if he could drop the new maps into the existing files on Drivethru, might be cool.
All of this, dear reader, is me getting my gears spun up again to start up my solo game. There seems to be a handful of people interested in seeing me pick it up again.
I have been playing around with Midjourney lately and decided to try to minic some Easley and Elmore style artwork for my YT solo game. Here is our mage, Halrondia. I like that she clearly has a fantasy medieval style to her, but casts off the typical 'sexy female centerfold' feeling. Belwo is her current character card.
So last year I did a series of solo ttrpg play on YouTube that were moderately successful. Last week Erik Tenkar did a video about solo play and he called me out for being 'the solo guy' in a group and not posting anything in ages (it has been ten months actually). This got me really thinking.
Sidebar:
I have had a rough two-three years for those who know me. Drastic life changes, personally and professionally and this last year especially I have been frankly floundering. My pals don't really know this but have probably started easily six to ten solo games with various systems, oracles, and tools. All have survived no longer than a handful of sessions before they petered out. This last year I have bought so many gamebooks, tried so many systems and tools. Nothing just felt right to me.
Back to Erik's message, and it really got me thinking. I LOVED that game that I posted on YouTube. I did somethings on there that appeared to really help others understand and get into solo gaming (I think this is because I live by the mantra KISS and I applied it to how I played solo). So I spent this weekend rewatching those videos, noting what worked, what did not, what I liked and what I did not, and I have decided I want to go back to Willowford. I began putting all my old notes, books, and resources together and I realized somehow I had managed to lose not only the printed map of Willow Valley, but also the file I used to create it. So, I spent a good portion today redrawing the entire thing, but that's ok because I am posting it here for others to use. I have made a few changes, mainly adding two more rivers and a small lake on the right side of the map. This is a recreation of the map from the White Box Omnibus by Mr James Spahn. Nothing wrong with the provided map, I just prefer this one. ;-)
Now that I have all my tools, I am hoping to start recording soon. No promises, but I am hoping to start up 'Season Two' of Doom Comes to Willowford!
TheGreenTap over on Reddit asked if there had ever been a "Compatible with WB:FMAG" logo. I did not recall one and so I went to work because, well, I love White Box. After a little back and forth I finally settled on the design below. As with the OSR logo, this is released Free Forever into the Public Domain with no attribution requirements or possibility of being revoked in the future. Long live gaming.
I just realized (yeah I know, five years) I never released a version of the OSR logo with a 'compatible' phrase on there. So, I fixed it. This will be added to the main logo page too but I know most will not see this until I do a new post. So here you go! Same as before, released to the public domain forever.
