FissureVerse: New Layouts, icons, and art

Thanks to Phill Berry and game-icons.net for the art!

FissureVerse gets a bit of an artistic overhaul. Firstly, I switched up all the icons for consistency, and to give proper credit for them (I'd never found appropriate attribution for the old set of icons). They are all similar in nature to the old icons, but I used the tools at game-icons.net to customize them. Since I noticed before that the blue of Emptiness Crusaders and Emptiness Locations were different, I used the palettes for the icons to create a consistent color scheme. Location cards also got extended art space and rules/flavor text space (shrinking the location names a bit to achieve this). I also upped the resolution from 200 to 300 dpi. I am sure this will increase the file sizes, but I'll take that to make things nicer.

I have so far blitzed through the Location and Solidity cards with new layouts, so I could add this new art:

Clicky clicky to see the details...y.

Grime is the home of The Derelict, and being that I've had a bit of affection for the group, I've always been hesitant to find good art for the card. Originally Grime was meant to be a sort of slums, where Solidity keeps them down. The background to the location is perhaps still similar, but with the fortress-style art here and all the turrets, I think it shows that Solidity keeps The Derelict in line with an iron fist, and rules over them in a more direct way, rather than the subtle scheming way of the previous iteration. Still, the new flavor text helps to push it closer to the original direction.

The other three cards are old cards, just updated with some new flavor text and fixed colors and icons.

You notice, of course, the new faction symbols (similar enough to the old ones), and the new attack symbol in the extra rules. That brings us to regular cards:

Servants of Solidity gets a refresh in art and flavor text, to keep the theme more sci-fi and make Solidity a little less comical.

Again, the extras here are for new flavor text, and The Derelict in particular is to show how the Solidity symbol looks when stuck in the special text.

The rest of the cards will be updated slowly, probably as I get some new art for each card type. Until then, there may be a mismatch in the style of each card type with the new vs. old layouts (as well as the cards which I haven't gotten art for yet, like the remaining Solidity and Location cards).

Edit 3/6/17: The Solidity cards were accidentally exported as 200 DPI; they have been reexported as 300 DPI to match the Location cards.

Broken links fixed

I've gone through every link in every blog post and fixed all of them where I had linked internally to Scattergamed, since they all broke now that I've renamed the blog to PixelatedDice.  It would have been an unbelievable task to remake every post in a sequence link to the next, so I opted instead to cut off the links.  I figure if you want to see them in order, you can use the page tabs at the top or the archive links on the side.  By getting rid of those, it also eliminates my need to continue doing it from here on, so it should save me some tedium.

I also removed a lot of broken picture links from articles and the like, though I skipped over random update posts.  If you see a broken link or broken picture anywhere, let me know and I'll fix it (or remove it).

FissureVerse: Back on Track

Thanks to Ariduka for the art!

After my hard drive died, I finally got a new computer, and redid the work of the previous few posts. I also changed some vocabulary. I feel like there's too many Re- words in Actions, so I changed Refill to Enlist. I think I'll need to change one or two more Action words, but for now it works because it simplifies the term "Directly Refill" to a single word, and I corrected instances where I said Refill but meant Recruit. I've also changed the Discard action (which is the opposite of the Enlist action) to be "Dismiss", which should separate it from other instances of Discarding for other purposes. Also, the Discard Pile is now the Dismissed Pile (which means I sometimes have to say "Discard into your Dismissed Pile").

Click to enlarge.

Optomites retains the same attributes and rules, I just changed the wording in hopes to be clearer. It may be the type of card that really needs to be explained two ways for everyone to understand. Originally, for art, I was thinking of some particularly happy, fluffy-type critter, something jolly with rainbows and cottontails. But, of course, as is the way of things, art strikes me funny and I find all kinds of interesting new ways to look at things. Now this card seems a bit more vicious. It's all good; it goes with the macabre theme of the game better and Emptiness could use a few more mad hatters.

If there was ever an Eeyore of FissureVerse, it would probably be Lugubrious. A bit the opposite of Optomites, too. I like how both are forest creatures, which is s common theme of Emptiness, though it's good to have other factions pick up a few, especially for a spin on a wizened old ent like this.

With Lugubrious, I'm half done with green cards!

Academic and Research have been a tough find, especially since they sound like they're the same thing. They are nearly the only two calm Frenzies left to find, so the rest will have to be mostly wild and vicious art. This is is some nice, chill-out style art for Academic that helps set it apart from other Frenzies, but the alien that's front and center fits with the game theme. The flavor text tried to push the theme of the card more to the teaching aspect of an academic person, so I can separate it more from Research.

Mystics gets a refresh to fall more in line with the sci-fi aspect of the game; it being too fantasy before. Also, the new art and flavor text both go better with the attributes.

I really like how all four have the same traveler meeting the main creatures of the cards. A few other cards do similar things, and I think it really helps make them look cohesive.

New PC, new blog name

So I finally got a new PC and am slowly customizing it.  I tried to access my old broken hard drive and it is dead for good, so I lost a little bit of work and will have to redo a little bit.  Not too much is gone from FissureVerse or other creative projects; I just lost a lot of my music and games which weren't backed up.  But not the end of the world.

Bigger news is I think my blog name (Scattergamed) is getting dumb, so I'll be changing it.  Hopefully Google is smart enough to redirect to the new blog name for a period of time before decommissioning the old name.  Otherwise, it may appear like the blog has disappeared.  Since I won't know what I'm naming it until I figure out what's available, I can't even say right now what I'm changing it to.  Well, if you lose your bookmark or something, perhaps do a search for "FissureVerse" and my new blog will pop up.  That's all I got.

Edit: ScatterGamed is now Pixelated Dice. Also, I have to fix every single link I've ever made between posts, so that may take a while.

Computer go boom

Hard drive boot sector failed, so I am using a loaner until I can get my data off the old hard drive, then get a new computer.  I have a recent backup, so I haven't lost too much; probably a couple of posts' worth of FissureVerse cards need to be remade.  Not the end of the world, fortunately.  Just the slow process of putting everything in order...

FissureVerse – The Prophet of Prophets Hitchhikes

Thanks to Hozure for the art!

Click to see bigger.

My original Prophet of Prophets placeholder was just a picture of Nostradamus, but copying a classic prophet look would be too cliché. I like the new look of the art far better, and I think it goes well with the stats, and the magic thorns coming up from the bottom are one way to explain the special rules. (The other way is to say the other Crusaders in the Field are filled with vigor from hearing that they will win from the Prophet so they fight better).

Hitchhiker has an Easter egg in the art: the character in the middle is literally standing on a giant hand. Ha! I was arguing with myself for a while over which card that art would go with, first thinking “Learning to Walk”, then thinking of various other Yellow and Green cards, but Hitchhiker is too good a visual pun to pass up. I also slightly modified Hitchhiker's stats so its Reason stat gets boosted while its Torment stat gets nerfed. This works to Hitchhiker's advantage, since it's now harder to be converted by Reason. I am currently stumped on flavor text, and I kind of do what something, since I could make it fit, but for now it will go without and I may revisit it later.

Next log: Four more cards after a hiatus...

“__________ at the __________”

“__________ at the __________”
A 200 Word RPG, version 1

One impartial narrator keeps score, describes events and determines if judges solutions.

Shuffle. Draw one card each (apart from narrator). Hide your card (even from narrator). Discover your gender, outlook, profession:

Spade: Noble Man
Club: Devious Man
Heart: Noble Woman
Diamond: Devious Woman

Ace: Gambler
Two: Store Owner
Three: Barkeep
Four: Miner
Five: Soldier
Six: Rancher
Seven: Barber
Eight: Doctor
Nine: Veterinarian
Ten: Banker
Jack: Outlaw
Queen: Priest
King: Sheriff

Keep some (devious) secrets.

Every ten minutes, draw a new card; discover an event:

Ace: Murder
Two: Riot
Three: Acid rain
Four: Fever outbreak
Five: Wolves
Six: Fire
Seven: Locusts
Eight: Hold up
Nine: Flood
Ten: Lynch mob
Jack: Bandits
Queen: Stampede
King: Nothing new

At the:

Spade: Schoolhouse
Club: Jailhouse
Heart: Ranch
Diamond: Saloon

Ten minutes after the tenth event card drawn, the game ends. Reveal your own card.

Goals:

Noble: solve each problem. One point for each successful solution.

Devious: let each problem continue into the next. One point for every continued problem every ten minutes (“nothing new” does not count as an event).

Players with the most points at the end win.

Kill a noble, you lose. Die, lose.