Viking Trading, Vanity Projects And The End Of The Holiday.

The end of the holiday is almost here. I should be back home tomorrow. Whilst I am enjoying the holiday, I will be glad to be back home.

Yesterday I found a nice little model shop in Portmadoc. It was a bit of a surprise as the place seems to mainly be a mix of shops that sell Portmerion pottery and charity shops. I got a few bits there but most of what they had isn’t currently on the shopping list. The staff were pretty friendly and the prices were reasonable.

What time I have had has been spent on the Viking game. Even the paperwork for this is turning into a never ending project. I have my bads guys worked out and readsy to roll out mayham across the land. I have tinkered about a few of my “myths” to ensure they all have internal consistency and I have been working on a trading system.

Having played way too much Traveller when I was younger I am still fascinated many of the systems. One of the ones in it, the trading system, has never really been attempted outside of Traveller. Trading was a big part of the Viking world. Along with raiding, it was trading that extended the influence of the Viking culture and it was this I wanted to give the players a chance to play out.

Essentially I took the basic Traveller trading system. I changed the goods around. There are no ATVs or radioactives in the Viking world. So I did a bit of research about the kind of goods traded and put them in the list. Then I had a think about the way the modifiers for trade. I took some categories and left some others out. Then added a few more. Population plays a part in the system so I had a few ideas about that. So I created a table and some modifiers and so on.

When it gets down to it, this is a vanity. The game would play without it as it would with a few other systems. Over the years I have criticised people for doing the same. It’s not the only vanity project in the game. There are already a few created for the game.

There is an even bigger vanity project to follow. Savage Worlds already have a couple of mass battle systems but none fit what I want for this game. What I am after is something more like a wargame (almost DBA) that allows for characters (player and non-player) to have some impact on the battle Showdown is not a bad system but I am after battles with hundred involved not dozens. This needs something completely different. There is a plan but it needs play testing. I want to do this properly so this might start out as a project for the laser cutter later in the month when I am back at FabLab.

Early start in the morning and a long day of driving so probably best I go to bed now.