itch.io

How are people arranging their 36 hexes?

Are you using point up hexes, or flat topped hexes?

I k ow there's no correct answer, as long as your map is exactly thirty-six hexes, I'm just curious.

You're right.

The short answer is that it's a tiefling with the serial numbers filed off.

The longer answer is that it's whatever you think something called a fiendskinned is. 🙂

Looks great, as always. :D

I have a question about the size of the tiles though; they seem to be 12px, rather than 8px.

These are great! I'm so happy to see more sprites that match the Run & Gun assets.

Awesome, thanks! Can't wait to see those two additional expansions.

Finally started reading Vyrmhack after picking it up nearly a year ago. I'm still chewing through the gristle, but I like it a lot so far. :)

I'm wondering if people are able to make third-party content for (including games based on) Vyrmhack. The fact there's an SRD makes me think the answer is 'yes' but I just want to be sure. Thanks.

Thank you SO much for the comments. This is precisely the kind of feedback I was looking for when I pit up the public playtest.

This is absolutely fantastic.

Thank you very much for this post – it's precisely the kind of feedback I was hoping for when I released a public playtest. I can't believe I forgot to include some of the answers in the rules. 

1. If an Enemy needs to move, but is already in Zone 6, it crashes. Put a number of damage tokens equal to the Health stat of the enemy onto the closest card (either the player's ship or the planet) and remove the enemy card from the game. That's the whole point of Astroliths – you gotta blow them up before they hit the planets!

2. Identical enemy cards with different rewards is intentional. I went back and forth on whether identical enemies should have identical rewards, or if them having different rewards would incentivize the player to prioritize different targets.

3. Gotcha. There is supposed to be enemies in Zone One at the start of the first turn, but rules as written, you're right. I need to clarify that.

4. Right now, all enemy cards in the column of  a destroyed planet get removed from the game. It's interesting that a valid tactic is to sacrifice one planet so you can focus on the remaining two. I like players pointing out interactions that I hadn't foreseen like this. In future versions of the game, I'm thinking about having Planet Cards provide some sort of static bonus (and possibly including more than three cards to choose from), so that might not be a valid tactic anymore. We'll see.

The main reason Enemy Cards above a destroyed planet get removed is because I though it would be a hassle to scoop all those cards up and redistribute them beneath the other two Enemy Decks. But that might be another option. It makes narrative sense – that part of the enemy fleet did its job, and so now comes to assist with destroying the remaining planets.

5. Discarding Ammo Cards at the end of the turn is not mandatory. I thought there was a may in there, but I'[ll go clarify that. The idea is that the player can either hang onto remaining cards they think will be useful for next turn, or toss cards they don't want in the hopes of drawing something better.

6. Ah, yeah. Right now, I'm trying to fit the game into a mint tin. So the cards are mini cards (2.5" x 1.75") and mint tin cards (3.43" x 2.05"). But making everything standard poker card sized might be cheaper to produce. I'll have to investigate that.

7. The duplicate Zone Marker cards are extras. I'm wondering if having them on BOTH sides of the play space will make things easier to line up. Mint Tin cards come in sheets of 18 (and aren't cheaper if you use less), so I have a number of "spare" cards currently.

As I said above, I thinking about giving Planet Cards some kind of effect (like increasing the Health of your ship, letting you hold +1 Ammo Cards, increasing the damage of your weapons, etc.) and including more than three in the game. I'm also thinking about a second ship that fires a beam (and damages every enemy in the column) instead of missiles with the purple icon.

Thanks very much for playing ASTROLITH and for posting these questions. :)

Absolutely! I'm hoping to have the rules done and the downloads available by the end of the week.

Thanks very much! While I tweaked colors and combined a few elements, the art assets are by Albi Lico (@alb_pixel) and Luis Zuno (@ansimuz).

Thanks for checking out my game, and for taking the time to comment!

Currently Cardhammer is kind on on hiatus. I love the idea of a tabletop wargame fitting into a deckbox, but am just not happy with several elements.

The biggest issue is that players still need a large area (4' by 4') when using full-sized cards. I'm not happy about that, but shrinking cards down to mini- or micro-size (half- and quarter-sized cards) reduces the amount of information I can fit onto the cards.

Also, I don't like how the unit stats are used in different ways. I've been trying versions where stats are unified; meaning the numbers on a unit are either the number of dice it rolls, or a target number it needs to roll over. Not a mix of both.

Long story short, I'm still thinking about Cardhammer and intend to do something with it, I've just hit some large roadblocks.

Thanks so much for saying so! I'm glad you enjoy them.

Spells and spellbooks are something I've been planning to make for a while now. I just haven't gotten around to it.

For right now, there aren't any defined spells. A spellcaster can simply cast whatever spell you think is appropriate for their class. Decide which stat is their spellcasting stat, roll the dice, and use the results to figure out how effective the spell was.

If you want your character to be especially good at a specific spell, list the name of that spell as one of the things they know because of their class training.

Thank you so much! These look amazing, and I was hoping you'd include a PNG file as well.

Same for me. I'm hoping there will be a .png file of the assets added soon.

Hi KrAkN,

Great question. I honestly hadn't considered it until just now. But I think you should only get the +10 bonus for each situation once per encounter. So the maximum bonus a PC could have in combat is +30.

No problem. Thanks for asking. :)

Thanks for asking. I've intentionally left that vague so that the players and GM can decide which stat makes the most sense based on the situation.

However, if the PC is doing something that relies on strength — like swinging a broadsword — Vigor is a good default stat. If they're doing something more precise — shooting a bow or using a rapier to target a weak point — Accuracy is a good choice.

Yeah! Very excited to read the four new Disciplines

That is fantastic news! I've been looking forward to a PoD version of this game, and an happy to hear it's still moving forward.

Thanks for the reply. I've got the ideas for Crimson Dunes of Mars mostly done, but they're still just in my head; I have to get them down on paper.

I honestly hadn't considered doing random tables for Brighthammer. (Well, not apart from random tables of spells for the magic booklets I have planned.) Would they be useful? 

Thanks for the ideas! I have plans for motivations and background booklets. I might try to release the Background one as a trio along with the Lineage and Class booklets. Motivations is something I've been working on as well. gaining a point of fate when you roll doubles encourages players to try things their characters aren's good at (since you always could roll doubles), but I want something that encourages roleplaying more.

Thanks very much for the reminder. I'm in the process of making a spreads version for people to read on digital devices.

Thanks for the comment, and for reminding me I need to update and then upload the screen versions.

Out of curiosity, what would you find most useful in the upcoming character options booklets?

Howdy! thanks for asking. Yes, there is a special way to fold the pocket mod version.

First, you fold the page in half horizontally – so that you end up with a long strip of paper. Then fold the strip in half vertically, then again vertically - that should give you eight panels. After that, open everything up and cut a slit along the center fold. That allows you to "pop out" the central panels, and flatten everything into a little booklet.

Below is a picture:

I realize this is rather complicated. I'd love to hear suggestions for other formats if you have them.

Hi RJkyyo,

I'm very glad to hear you like Brighthammer! Would you be interested in me hiring you do do a Brazilian Portuguese translation? If so, let me know so we can work out the details.

Thanks very much! That is precisely what I was going for.

Thanks very much for taking the time to comment AND for reminding me I need to make the single page PDFs available.

Thanks! I should have done it sooner, but condensing the booklets into a single PDF is just a lot easier to manage.

Thanks very much for the feedback. People reading this on a screen is initially why I included the booklets as single page PDFs. As I want these to be as accessible as possible, I'll upload single page versions again.

Thanks for checking. You're not blind; I simply haven't added the terrain cards to the playtest packet. They're coming soon.

Thanks for checking out my game! I have about four other factions ready to go, but worried that putting out too much too quickly might be overwhelming for new players.

Out of curiosity, what faction would you like to see next?

Thanks very much. I'm in a similar situation; no time or space to collect or play miniature wargames like Warhammer or Warmachine despite still really liking them. Smaller skirmish games Frostgrave have been scratching that itch (and are great games), but still require space to play and store models. I'm trying to see how compact I can get a wargame while still keeping it fun.

Howdy, thanks for asking. Here's a diagram to help illustrate:

In the image above, both the Marauders and the Imperial Halberdiers are behind the front edge of the Imperial Swordsmen (light gray area). So the Swordsmen currently do not have line of sight to either of those units.

Rats, rats, rats. I'm not sure how that happened, but it's definitely a mistake. The Imperial Lancers should have an armor score of 4. Not 5. They're better armored than the Hussars, hence them being more expensive. I'll have to fix that this evening.

Thanks for asking.

Currently, giving a subsequent order to a unit requires you to re-roll that unit's command die and getting a higher result. There will be rules for assigning additional command dice to guarantee a unit perform a second or third order, but those haven't been added yet.

A unit is on the crest of a hill when it's touching or overlapping the terrain card. (Basically, imagine the terrain card as the slope of the hill; everything outside the ring of terrain cards is "ground level" and everything inside the ring of cards is the flat top of the hill.) The intention is units on a hill (so inside the ring of terrain cards) but not on the crest (so not touching or overlapping the terrain cards) can't be shot at by units on lower ground. If you stay away from the edge of a hill, you can't be seen be people on lower ground.

Ooh, nice! Printing the units out on 3x5 cards would absolutely make them more durable. You'll have to do some repositioning though, as the two versions of the page are letter and A4.

As a huge fan of both the Monster Hunter franchise and journaling games, I'm embarrassed about how long it took me to discover this game. I haven't played yet, but I am wildly impressed with how well Apex Hunter captures the spirit of MoHu in a compact, rules light format. I love that there are four different monsters in the book, as well as rules for making equipment from them. I see a huge and exciting potential to make additional "location" books, each with a host of new monsters. Highly recommended.

Okay, cool. That _is_ how I exported it, so it's not a mistake, but looking at it now, yeah. That's not great. I'll see if I can fix that for the single pages version.

Thanks very much. Is that in the spreads PDF or the pages PDF? 

I honestly didn't think about how difficult the notes would be to read in the single-page format, but looking at it now, it might be better to not have them cross the page like that...