Miniature Wargaming – Hot Space Station Justice

April 5, 2023

A game and a story walk into a blog…

A GAME

The manuscript for my latest tabletop war game, When Nightmares Come, is with the publisher now. *whew* Finally.

Seems Osprey Blue Books are shifting to a new format with a slightly longer page count. This is good for me because I pushed the envelope and wound up a thousand words over the line – and that was without any flavor bits or a Quick Reference Section. I’m trusting the editor to shoehorn everything in, along with the cool illustrations and a creepy, noir-ish reference map for linked missions/campaigns. “A game of occult investigation and supernatural warfare” is slated for release next March, so there’s plenty of time to get all the bits to fit. (probably involves a hammer)

Nightmares is designed for Solo/Cooperative gaming and it’s built on an established set of mechanics, so I’m confident it will run smooth. I think people who want a streamlined, modern monster hunt/narrative skirmish game will enjoy it. I’ll talk to my game group and see if we can’t get a few more games in the rotation.

A STORY

Sneaking through the Cordon for a third time, I’m coming to the end of another Exclusion Zone short story. This one’s about a sketchy Trader, (a smuggler) his schemes, and a hot tip on some artifacts. Proofreaders, a final round of editing, it should be at Amazon Kindle by the end of the month.

Someone in the Stalker7 Facebook group asked about a compilation. A fine idea but the first two stories are already in Fits and Orisons, so I’d need a Zone fourth story, exclusive to a new, focused collection, to give it value. I’m usually short on time, not ideas. But I guess I’ll add that to the ‘To Do’ list now…

ON THE RADAR

New mission packs for two of my games, dungeon crawl fiction, part 2 of Shattered Worlds, and another stand-alone war game. Busy, yes. But beats the opposite. The game will be Sci Fi, this time around. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll stick with Solo/Co-op or circle back to PvP. Either way, it’ll give folks an excuse to get their stray minis on the table and start forging cool stories and waging desperate battles against fearful odds. (for the ashes of their fathers and the temple of their gods…)

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading. Have an excellent day.

June 29, 2020

Writing these days

Got a newsletter recently from one of the Indie Writer groups I lurk around, asking if/how the Covid-19 lock down affected my writing. Have to say ‘Quite a bit” if I’m being honest.

It’s not just the Covid-19 though. That was tough. Weird. But do-able.

Nope. In short order, global pandemic was at the bottom of a pig pile of deaths, crises in leadership, international strife, economic uncertainly, racism, political and social animosity, demonstrations, looting*… and then I got sick and spent a month in an out of the hospital.

It felt like I was breathing smog. Gasping, every time I sat down at the computer. It was hard to think straight, let alone relax and get creative. “Flow Space, anyone?“

I pushed on. No props to me, really. It was some combination of prayer, grace, and mule-headed desperation. Had to keep busy with something and I didn’t have the energy for anything new, so I stuck with the familiar.

Felt like I was clawing at granite with my fingernails but things got done.

At the top of the fiction list, the first portion of my post-apocalyptic fantasy saga was polished and kicked out the door. Finally. Beneath the Broken Moon. Shattered Worlds, Book One is currently available as an ebook at Amazon.

Rachelle Stewart Ramirez of the Story Grid and Leonora Bulbeck over at Reedsy were both invaluable. A debt of eternal gratitude to them both. I can only hope I did justice to their hard work and excellent advice.

Next, my second STALKER/METRO 2033 flavored short story, Strange Treasure is now available as an audio book as well as a Kindle read. For anyone other than me keeping count, that makes six audio books: Strange Treasure, Prayer to St. Strelok, Hard Kill, Sozo, The Stones Remember, and The Barrow Lover. A little light listening for your daily commute. You’re welcome.

While we’re getting post-apocalyptic, I should mention my writing for the table top wargame hobby is still going strong. Zona Alfa has been available since late January, courtesy of Osprey Publishing. (Thanks, guys) The S7 Facebook Group is approaching 800 members and is filled with some very cool, creative, and inspiring war game comrades. I’m quite grateful.

It’s not limited to a Soviet-style apocalypse either. Gamers from all sorts of interesting places also seem to enjoy my solo/cooperative cyberpunk skirmish game, Hardwired, and the expansion, Tsim Sha Tsui Expansion.

I was encouraged enough by the support to build on the same game mechanics to hammer out a set of Fantasy-genre, monster hunting rules. Titled, Nightwatch: Terror and Treasure in the Dark Corners of the World, it’s nearing completion and should (God willing) be out in August, 2020.

It’s been a slog, I have to admit. I feel like I’ve been tunneling out of a POW Camp with a soup spoon; cramped, sweating, panting in the dark, measuring progress inches at a time. Not quite the artist’s life I imagined, buoyed by a supportive community of like-minded creatives and a brisk, tail wind of the Spirit.

Erm… nope.

Still, stuff got done. There’s more stuff to do. Forward motion – even in inches – is still progress. We’re all going though it, getting through it. That’s the season we’re in. It’ll turn. Until then, we persevere and keep doing the next right thing.

I’ll leave you with a quote from a book you really should read: Robert MacFarlane’s Underland.

Dissonance is produced by any landscape that enchants in the present but has been a site of violence in the past. But to read such a place only for its dark histories is to disallow its possibilities for future life, to deny reparation or hope – and this is another kind of oppression. If there is a way of seeing such landscapes, it might be thought of as ‘occulting’: the nautical term for a light that flashes on and off, and in which the periods of illumination are longer than the periods of darkness.

That’s all for now. I hope and pray you are all safe and well.

Until next time, take care.

***

*what happened to the Murder Hornets? Are they still around?

March 16, 2020

Full Moon, Friday the 13th, Global Pandemic, and a book release

I hope you’re safe and well in the midst of what increasingly resembles a plot from a dystopian sci fi novel. Despite this present strangeness, I’m pleased to announce Shattered Worlds Book One, Beneath the Broken Moon is now available.

“Took long enough,” you say. Yes, it did. There’s a story behind that too, but I’ll spare you. It’s done now and the ball is rolling again.

Book Two, Into the Scorned Lands is slated for release later this year, also as an ebook. If sales merit, I’ll combine both in a print version.

In other writing news, the table top war games , Hardwired, the TST Expansion, and Zona Alfa all continue to do well. In fact, the Stalker7 Facebook Group for Zona Alfa has grown to nearly 550 members since its inception in January, 2020. If you’re a miniature painter, table top gamer, or interested in narrative war games, feel free to drop by the Stalker7.com site for more information. If you’re into those things already and the idea of cyberpunk or Russian-flavored post-apocalyptic skirmish wargames appeals to you, request to join the group and mention you saw it here.

Thank you all for your patience and support. More news as it comes.

Stay safe. Art hard. Enjoy life.

patrick t.
march 15, 2020

October 9, 2019

Now Available: Tsim Sha Tsui Expansion

The TSIM SHA TSUI EXPANSION. A supplement for the co-op/solo table top war game HARDWIRED. New weapons, new gear, new missions, new threats.

Available in PDF format at WARGAMEVAULT.COM or for Kindle at AMAZON .

Hardcopy version is on the way.

Here are some pictures from our games.