Feelz Good Man Strikes Again

 If you're still on the fence about it, or haven't given it a chance, The Joy of Wargaming is going like gangbusters.

But don't take my word for it:

We're doing a long-form series detailing a logistical and strategic campaign using the book shown in the picture above.  It's got a lot of surprises and the action kicks off here:

[More Than You Know] Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise

Discussing a book as creative and original as Cha’alt (a setting written and designed by Venger Satanis for use with whatever iteration of the D&D tabletop RPG) presents a number of challenges for the reviewer.  Specifically, the marketing hype used within the tabletop RPG market has devalued the meaning of the most appropriate descriptors for Cha’alt.  Taking the easy route would make this product sound exactly like a host of other independent RPG products, which it most emphatically is NOT.

That last observation opens the door to a solution.  A lot of those challenges of talking about Cha’alt can be overcome by starting with a discussion of a few things that Cha’alt is most emphatically NOT.

For starters, it isn’t nearly as degenerate as you would expect from the marketing.  It does contain some adult themes – drug use primary among them – but it isn’t the all out sleazefest that you find with other Venger products.  It does contain some gratuitous T-and-A art and plothooks, but these are a spice added to the main dish and not the focus of the meal.  The “naughty bits” are easily ignored and generally rise only to the level of what one might find in a typical issue of Heavy Metal. 

On a related note, Cha’alt comes across as an amoral setting, one in which crime lords and demon worshippers and corporate robber barons exist for their own sake.  A closer look reveals some surprisingly deep touches to the setting that encourage, if not outright heroism, at least a healthy respect for doing the right thing.  Rather than paint with balck and a few closely related bands of grey, Venger’s setting also respect for the need to paint with bright white pure light, for contrast if nothing else.  To take just one example, it includes a section titled “Murder Hobo Regrets” which includes a long list of acts of contrition, one of which must be undertaken or the character suffers from specific and concrete game-world ramifications.  It’s a small thing, but an important one, and it goes a long way towards smoothing out what could be a very bleak and hopeless universe.

Cha’alt also doesn’t fit the mold of the now over-used term “gonzo”.  That word applies, to be sure, but it isn’t sufficient.  These days ‘gonzo’ has been applied to everything up to and including the strait-laced wokeness of Wizards of the Coasts fantasy Seattle version of Waterdeep.  It has also been applied to the kitchen-sink approach of settings such as Gamma World, and it doesn’t really apply here.  Sure, Cha’alt gleefully rips from numerous sources and refuses to be limited by the normal strictures of genre and setting.  There is, however, a method to Venger’s madness, as every odd and quirky misfit detail works within the setting.  The unpredictability of things isn’t a crutch used to smooth over missing pieces or a lack of design.  It is the design.

With those out of the way we turn our attention to describing the world of Cha’alt with fresh eyes.  Physically, the world is a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland on an alien planet, one pockmarked by small outposts of civilizations that range from the gutter to the stars.  The doorman at the local underworld dive bar might keep one eye on the lot, to make sure no one messes with the alien raptor mounts, low-riding hover-cycles, jeweled flying carpets, and strange pulsing orbs of multi-hued light.  Weapons checked at the door can range from small curved daggers to ugly and heavy slug throwers to sleep beam weapons to crystalline staves half aware of their fate.  It’s a sci-fi world, and a magic one, but one that also incorporates the full spectrum of spiritual warfare as chthonic nightmares wage war with literal demons, and angelic beings work subtle ploys of their own to keep the dumpster fires of that war contained.  Naturally, all of the factions – physical, corporate, spiritual, and other-dimensional – use men as weapons in a “let’s you and him fight” kind of war.  Sex, drugs, violence, intimidation, hard cash, power, and secrets are the currency of the day, and the players step into a resultant political scene that can be as simple or as complex as the table can handle.  Better yet, it’s one that can ramp up as the character’s power level does, in easily digested bites.  They might just be interested in helping the local bodega owner escape from under the thumb of a two-bit syndicate only to find that the syndicate has been order to secure that location because of ley line shenanigans or hidden deposits of rare drug-ore – and that the orders came from a space-faring Federation that doesn’t want to dirty its own hands.  Having eliminated the minor threat, the PCs can easily get caught up in the fight between powerful wizards and massive galactic gunships.  It’s that kind of devil-may-care approach to the setting that too often gets tarred with the same ‘gonzo’ brush as other, less fully realized settings.

The book’s design and art supplement the written word to perfection.  Sometimes harsh, sometimes bizarre, and sometimes intimate, it all works to segregate Cha’alt from the crowd.  It is a lush and easily digested buffet.  It helps establish the setting as the sort of bridge between medieval fantasy and far flung future tech, and works to inspire the imagination to break free of that ossified and stunted assumption that a wall exists between the two.  The place echoes with the source material that inspires it, and encourages the user to draw from his own experiences with pop culture to add even more outlandish detail to an already colorful setting.

To really hammer home the alien-ness of the place, Venger uses a vague point-to-point map labelled with evocative (though perhaps ironic) place names.  Elysium can only be the pleasant oasis of technologic wealth acquired through seedy means.  Nothing good can come of the Black Pyramid, for it must be an unholy place where only black-hearted men dare tread.  Even the made-up names carry a note of exotic beauty.  Kra’adumek.  S’kbah.  Ascenda’as.  Even a place like A’agrybah carries just enough real-world meaning to help readers understand the eastern, onion spired flavor of the place without completely turning into a Middle-Easter caricature.  It has those undertones, but like so much of this setting, it manages to become its own thing.

Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise, drops into this world like an eldritch bomb.  The words after the colon in its title refer to a soporific drug that has enervated the people of Cha’alt.  That drug war – an open war along the lines of the Opium Wars of our own world – provides the skeletal framework around which most of the action revolves.  Cha’alt suffers from the curse of possessing an important ore littering its crust, which has attracted the attention of powerful extra-ch’aaltian forces.  They found that fuscia malaise could be used to induce the troublesome and fractious chaaltian populace into willingly accepting the yoke of oppression.  Most have adopted a bipolar life of endless drudgework performed to secure the next round of endless dream-state produced by their next hit.  And the powers that be, as in our own world, are never satiated by access to mere money.  Their depredations have only grown, and at some point somebody is going to have to do something about it.

Why not you?

Venger provides a wealth of factions to join and fight, intrigues to join, plots to foil, locations to explore, mysteries to uncover, and adventures to be hand.  And not in the usual bland linear style, nor even the top-down NPCs will do X if the players don’t do Y style, either.  Instead, Venger provides a few grand-scope plots by the major players that will trundle along with little change in the background unless acted upon by an outside player force.  Those can be the thrust of a long campaign, but far more interesting are the countless little nudges toward adventure – short tables of encounters, smaller places, lost treasures that could have epic consequences if found, and minor NPCs whose role can expand along with the scope of the campaign.  These things will arise naturally through play, and the connective tissue becomes the sole responsibility of the players.  There’s just too much here for one table to contain, and no one for one designer, no matter how far seeing, to know how it all fits together.  That can only come out through actual play.

And that really is the best part about Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise.  It isn’t a book meant to be read and shelved, but a concept meant to be taken down, taken apart, and put back together in ways no one can possibly understand until its guts are laid out across the table, the fun has been had, the dust has settled, and the malaise worn fully off.  Like the best works of art, Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise isn’t just a book.  It’s an experience.

You can get the digital copy at DriveThruRPG, but you'll want to spring for the hardcover direct from Venger.

Happy New War!

 The Trossian War campaign offers a lot of possibilities for narrative fun and complications, but I repeat myself.  It uses Featherstonian "Chance" cards to add a level of...uh, chance...to the proceedings, some of which offer the possibility of adding third party elements to your forces.  Painted up in the Imperial purple, these bases can also be used as rebellious militia, or even an expeditionary force from outside the Trossian continent!

It's not a large force, worth only around 20AP, but that's half the size of a normal army used in a bog-standard non-campaign game of 2x2 Napoleonics.  Three line infantry and one each of grenadiers, light infantry, heavy and light cavalry, and one HQ.

The left over pieces of the army groups provided enough material to create a small wagon train (left) and a military HQ.  These will be nice if the events of the campaign lead to a raid on a supply train or a 'capture the general' style battle.

The set includes one final little 'capture the flag' marker.  Below you can see the square fields surrounded by hedges.  Irregular sells those hedges in line, but they are very small and perfectly sized to create a pair of small pastures.  Can't have a pasture without livestock, so I bought a flock of sheep from Irregular, based it, and now they are penned up next to the HQ in the photo below.  A pasture will make for a nice little fortified area for the armies, and a nice little wrinkle to add to any battlefield.

Make sure you check the Trossian War blog for updates on the conduct of the festivities.

Wargaming Campaigns: The Book

 It's not too late to join the wargame renaissance and give the classic umpire-led campaign a shot.  In fact, it may be a little too early.  If you've ever thought about trying your hand at running a larger-scale campaign, then Henry Hyde has a little advice for you.  I've already pre-ordered a copy of this book, which won't be out until the end of May.  Just in time to tell me everything that I've been doing right and wrong with the Trossian War.

The price is a bit steep, but if you pre-order a copy using this link you can save 30% off the cover price.  That's not an affiliate link, by the way, it's just a bit hard to track down the discounted fare and I am a giving soul.  The final book will be 500+ pages of beautifully written and illustrated work that your wife will want to leave out on the coffee table to broadcast to visitors what an erudite and thrifty couple you are.  Guaranteed.

Of course, once the game finally arrives in early summer, I'll be sure to hammer out a fully detailed review to see if it measures up to the hype.

Scattered Shots and Thoughts

 Time to make a scene!

Can't fight for the throne of the Trossian Empire if you don't have a continent of Tros to fight on.  So let's take a look at some of that scatter  This is all 2mm terrain from either Irregular Miniatures or PicoArmor.

Irregular trees on the right and, believe it
or not, hills on the left.
Very low hills.

Some water features, all from PicoArmor.

Not sure that I have a use for the coastal fortress or the light house, but the boat will make for a fine objective.  And even if they don't have a use, they add a touch of scenery.

Towns and such from Irregular

Now that I've got these painted, I can map out and paint up a few 'drop cloths'.  With the colors in pace and the river and widths established, we can move on to the next step.

PicoArmor churches, with a variety of extra steeples,
so you could make all these Orthodox if you want.
Figures for scale.

One thing to note on this, Irregular makes a much larger cathedral that includes the stone walkway you see in the center.  That cast wasn't very good, and it was way too big to fit into my storage, so the centerpiece didn't make the final cut.  I still used the stone base for a PicoArmor building, to...mixed results.  Looks great, but:

Now the church doesn't fit into my storage box.  The colored boxes are 4" by 6" photo storage boxes that fit neatly into a carrything case.  That courtyard makes the cathedral just a little too big.  So I snapped off the steeple and now when I want to use there is some assebly required.  Gotta roll with those punches.

A Big 2mm Update

The big hoopty for 2020 here at Chez Inabox has been the move to integrate 2mm scale gaming into the mix.  Not only that, but we determined that a move into the new frontier of mass battle black powder gaming was in order.  We like to zig when the world zags, and we rarely go in half-way.  Five full armies and a few scattered allies await five players.

The littlest Brunswickers

But all those piles of teeny-tiny soldiers need some ground to battle over, and now we've just about got it.  Here's a shot of some excellent Irregular and PicoArmor terrain for you, primed and ready for some color.

Just getting the vegetation done adds a lot to the visual appeal, n'est pas?

And to give you a better idea how tall the little hills are, here is a WIP unit of Imperial or Militia infantry ready to storm the slopes.

One of the decision points on a project like this comes when you have to decide exactly how to account for the base thickness.  The massive 25+mm figs tower enough that it doesn't really factor in at all.  When your boys are only as tall as the base itself, it forces a wargamer to think.  Should the terrain have a base just as thick as the units?  I've decided to do just that.  It makes the table look a little more 'gamey' and a little less 'living diorama', but the game comes first.  This will help establish that border between 'open ground' and 'special circumstance' and prevent it from looking like all the armies are hovering well above the rest of the terrain demarcations.

And Happy Boxing Day, ya crazy, lovable, all-too-friendly Great White Northerners.

Peace on Earth to Men of Goodwill

’Twas Christmas Day on the Somme

’Twas Christmas Day on the Somme

The men stood on parade,

The snow laid six feet on the ground

Twas twenty in the shade.

Up spoke the Captain ‘gallant man’,

"Just hear what I’ve to say,

You may not have remembered that

Today is Christmas Day."

"The General has expressed a wish

This day may be observed,

Today you will only work eight hours,

A rest that’s well deserved.

I hope you’ll keep yourselves quite clean

And smart and spruce and nice,

The stream is frozen hard

But a pick will break the ice."

"All men will get two biscuits each,

I’m sure you’re tired of bread,

I’m sorry there’s no turkey

but there’s Bully Beef instead.

 

The puddings plum have not arrived

But they are on their way,

I’ll guarantee they’ll be in time

To eat next Christmas Day."

"You’re parcels would have been in time

But I regret to say

The vessel which conveyed them was

Torpedoed on the way.

The Quartermaster’s got your rum

But you may get some yet,

Each man will be presented with

A Woodbine Cigarette."

"The Huns have caught us in the rear

And painted France all red,

Pray do not let that trouble you,

Tomorrow you’ll be dead.

Now ere you go I wish you all

This season of good cheer,

A very happy Christmas and

A prosperous New Year."