CAT31691p_DevelopmentJournal.pdf

8/22/2019 CAT31691p_DevelopmentJournal.pdf

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developmentjournal

A compilAtion of blog posts from monstersinthes
http://www.monstersinthesky.com/http://www.monstersinthesky.com/


2/10

The following is a first compilation PDF of development

blogs written by Randall N. Bills and posted to

www.monstersinthesky.com across roughly six months.

It covers the development of the game mechanics as

presented in the Lieutenants Manual, providing a

detailed, behind-the-scenes view of the creation of a newgame and the universe to go with it.

Leviathans a ada imdar pdu llc. s d ud a

cav c l (by-nc-sA); s r rvd. 2010.

tm
http://www.monstersinthesky.com/http://www.monstersinthesky.com/


3/102

Firs, le e sar his blog pos by saying haeven his early, he aoun of coens andexcieen I seeing is incredibly graifying.

tha said, however, while I rying o peekin now and hen and respond o soe specificcoens ade abou hese poss, I can possiblyanswer every quesion ha coes up. Perhaps ifLeviathanswas he only hing I was working onI igh have ha ie. As i is, I feeling preygood ha I able o ake hese blog poss onceor wice a week in he ids of y work load.

Wha does all ha ean? Please have paience.Youve go soe grea quesions and insead ofjuping in every ie o iediaely answerhe, wih a few excepions I going o hold off.Insead, hrough coninued blog poss heading

forward, no only will you see he developenof his projec, bu youll hopefully ge all of yourquesions answered. And answered in a way hais far ore coplee han any quick responses Iigh ake o any given coens. thanks!

Okay, now o he ea of his pos. Righ ahe beginning I knew here were cerain aspecsof a flying gae ha I siply had o leave ahe door. As wih any gae design youve go ofigure wha can you include and wha should waifor a rules expansion or advanced rules.

Wih Baletech Ive had he joy (pain) ofworking on he advanced rulebooks of lae, which

has allowed e o delve ino rules expansionso y hears conen. Especially wih tacicalOperaions, I liked o joke You can bale wih

your mechs, inside an aircraf carrier, while issinking, and pick up soe bale aror and hrowi a he eney while youre a i. then again, is25 years ino Baletechs life and a very advancedrulebook, so I can ge away wih ha.

For Leviathanswere righ a he beginning. Sowhile he universe screas for figher squadrons,aircraf carriers and full 3-diensional rules, allof hose are siply beyond he scope of he levelof difficuly we wan he gae o encopass ahe beginning. However, unlike say Baletech(which Jordan will ell you righ ou was a one-offgae and is success surprised he, so every rules

ediion beyond ha has been a plugin o a sysenever designed for expansion) I designingLeviathansfro he ge-go o be expandable inonuerous differen areas if i proves a success.Hopefully his will lesson he ipac ha rulesexpansions can ofen have on gae balance andplay.

Now I can hear he screas now. No up anddown?! Bu youre flying?! the proble is haeiher he inclusion of 3-diensional rules areeiher oo ligh so hey hardly provide any feelingof ha aspec (so why include he?) or heyreso coplex ha i akes he difficuly of he gae

o a higher level han every oher aspec of hegae.

Furherore, for Leviathans, is no a gaeof dog fighing planes, bu insead assive ships

wih gian guns, so heyre ore ponderous hanagile. So boh he feel of he gae and he needo ensure ha he added coplexiy doesn akehe gae oo difficul for a ou of he box, inrogae play aesheic, ade he decision easy.

Does ha ean were ignoring he fac haheyre in he air? Of course no. Boh ficion andar ouch upon ha aspec: he firs sory ficionpiece we hope o have on he sie in he nearfuure deals direcly wih ha concep, while hear for he ships shows ha os of he side gunare all and hin, wih verical slos ha allow for

raising and lowering he guns.A he end of he day, of course, he rue es

of wheher or no excluding he 3-diensionaeleen direcly in he firs box se worked or nois when is picked up and played. the gae is veryfun and enjoyable and sill very uch conveys aflying feel wihou going ha roue. Bu of courseas noed above, I also designing he gae frohe ground up o have such expansions, so Ivecopious noes floaing around on how o add harules expansion down he road, in a way has

very cool and will only ake a fun gae and aki even beer.

So begins y developer blogs on Leviathans;no gonna proise a schedule as Ive far oo anyplaes for ha bu I will ake regular poss

I hoping o keep hese ore reasonable in

scope, as opposed o y legendary Baletechblogs ore akin o elecronic oes. Bu isbeen a long road and were finally geing soe

serious headway and haeans excien.And when Iexcied I end oypeand when

you ype as fas asI do, he words pileup prey fas.

Ill be a hisfor onhs ocoe, I iagine,

as he gae isnscheduled for releaseunil he end of his

year. Bu Ive foundover he years ha

a couniy, even a poenial couniy,appreciaes he behind-he-scenes look suchblogs bring. However, heres ore o i han ha.

While ofen gae designers feel like alcheiss,

hiding in caves and crafing heir aserpiecebrew o unleash on he world, is far fro heruh. Especially on soehing so coplex as anew gae line (as opposed o a one-off gae).

Auhors, ariss, fac checkers, playesersheyall work ogeher o help e bring ou a gaehall ake Caalys, and yself, proud. And ifheres one hing Ive learned over he years, hecouniy can be a very iporan par of haequaion, even during developen.

they say a picure is worh a housand words.And in our indusry ha couldn be ore rue.

two years or so ago (in y sick-encrusedbrainbeen sick for several days bu can see o

sop workingI can uch reeber a few daysago uch less wo years) Caalys Gae Labsreceived a gae proposal fro John Haward.Now Caalys receives gae proposals on aregular basis and we ake a look a every one of

he. However, John Haward is one of hosevoluneers ha greases he wheels of Caalysand so we ade sure o ake he ie and looka his proposal.

While he opening paragraphs of hedescripion of he universe were copelling, iwas he iage hed aached ha sold us on heconcep. Is no soehing we could use as i wadone for anoher gae. Bu i was done so welland had such a grea, epic feel o i we knew wedbe doing his gae. Now he gae echanicsha John proposed we ook a hard look a anddecided o se aside o copleely craf a newgae fro he ground up. Bu ha iage and heHarry turledove-syle alernae hisory universeconcep we fell in love wih and off I wen.

Course ha was near wo years ago and hegaes gone hrough several coplee ieraion

since hen, no o enion he endless round andround on he arbu hose are a hos of blogsfor he fuure.

Whileoftengamedesignersfeel

likealchemists,hidingincavesandcraftingtheirmasterpiecebrewtounleashontheworld,itsfarfromthetruth.


4/103

When you look a iniaures gaes as awhole hey fall ino several caegories (here areoher caegories, bu for y purposes he vasajoriy fall ino one of hese hree).

1. Record Shees for everyhing. Baletech islikely he bes exaple of his, wih an in-dephrecord shee for abou every uni you can fieldlas coun, wih all he advanced rules opions,

were pushing 50. Now his provides a greasense of how cool and big and kick-bu unisare, as hey don die quickly and you can feel hedaage as i occurs. the downside, of course,is ha hings don die quickly, so he gaescan be long and of course i can be incrediblyiniidaing for a new player o look a a pile ofconfusing record shees.

2. Hi poins; sei record shees. Gaes likeWarhaer, Warachine and so on usually

have a very sall record shee wih fixed sasfor heir heroes, while he bulk of he unis aresiply a single hi poin figure, and any ofhose are a hi and kill siuaion. Now hose syleof able-op iniaures gaes work like habecause youre fielding dozens and dozens of

figures and as I can aes, if youre fielding haany unis and hey all have in-deph recordshees, youre looking a onhs of play ie.So while i works o quickly speed up gaes, I

hink he downside is ha you lose a sense ofconnecion o os of he figures when hey poplike candy.

3. Coba dial. Pioneered by mage Knigh,mechWarrior: Dark Age and HeroClix,

variaions of i exis across nuerous gaes.Basically aking all he sas and oving he oa dial on he iniaures base o speed up gaeplay. While i solved a lo of he issues of ooany RS and heyre oo coplex and oo fewdeails on he iniaure, i had is own issuesfor gae play, such as he dreaded did you puhe iniaure back exacly where i was?

So heres a long, soried hisory of successful

gaes ha fall ino hose caegories and hoseha spin off variaions of hose above o akecool, fun gaes. Afer looking a all he variousopions I kep coing back o he record shee.Especially when youre alking uli-housandon vessels, I fel ha neiher siply hi poins

or a coba dial could really do i jusice.A he sae ie I didn jus wan o do a

sandard paper record shee. theres been a loof cool innovaions ade in gaing over he

las 5 o 10 years, as well as unique and newways of racking inforaion and he aerialsused for such racking. So afer kicking aroundhe concep soe we had soe joed noeson soe paper and we go in soe very earlyand quick ossing of soe dice o see howi was feeling; no sure Id even call i gaeplayesing as he rules were so loose a hapoin, bu insead i was ore abou aesheicplayesing if you will.

Wha resuled was a solid concep ha wecould and should use a record shee o provideenough deails o really convey he sense of hesize of he vessels and he wear and ear daage

hey ake. And so far, hrough a lo of playesinghas proven iself ou horoughly.A he sae ie were no going he nora

paper roue (as enioned above), bu insead wergoing down wha I hope is a differen, cool and funpah. Bu Ill ouch on ha down he line.

So I knew wha ype of gae we waned and

we had rough conceps down for how o rackdaage on ships, so now I needed o pu fingerso keyboard and generae rules.

One of he very firs decisions o ake waswheher his would be a rue able-op iniauresgae (using rulers and such o easure oveen)or wheher Id use soe ype of grid syse. Aferdoing a lo of research and looking a a hos ofgaes on he arke (along wih erring on heside of he ype of gae I was rying o produce)I decided agains he gridless syse.

So if I going wih a grid, wha ype of gridshould i be? Pleny of popular gaes use squaregrids, bu ha didn feel righ, especially in a

gae where all iniaures are going o fill orehan one space. the hough of hese warshipsoving forward and hen urning 90 degreesinsanly for a urn ade e laugh ou loud.

the answer, of course, was siing in fron of e

he whole ieI jus ried ignoring i because Ididn wan y own any years of developenof ha gae o bleed over ino Leviathans. Buafer several fis and sars i becae very apparenha a hex grid siply worked oo well. Whasore, due he rough scale of he iniaures we

waned o produce (1:1200), he Baletech hex-size siply worked perfecly (i.e. 1.5 corner ocorner). [As an added bonusi ade playesingeasier as I could jus ell people go ge a Btap.]

Wih he syle of board defined i was ieo dive ino he gae design full on. As Ivepreviously enioned, I waned o be very sure

o keep he gae on he siple end of hespecru. And ha ean keeping he nuberof odifiers o a iniu. Now you can duphe all, of course, or heres no possibiliy for

acics in gae play,

which akes hegae no very funo play, which killsoff re-playabiliy.So as y fingersbegan banging ouiniial rules forplayesing I hada rough figure ofno ore han 8oal siuaionalodifiers forhe core of hegae (enhanced

scenario play rulesdon coun ;-) . As i urned ou, hefirs draf lef e wih 7.

Butafterseveralfitsandstartsitbecameveryapparentthatahegridsimplyworkedtoowell.


5/104

As par of he box se for Leviathans wereincluding he LeviathansPrimer; i.e. he universebook. Is been an ineresing exercise in ryingo deerine wha info should and shouldn be

covered when we only have so any pages.For exaple, in addiion o he radiionalhisory/echnology secion, where we discuss

wha akes a Leviathans go, we also ouch onhe eigh priary epires of he world. Obviouslyheres a minor Powers secion as well, bu forour purposes here are eigh epires ha geore han a paragraph of coverage in he book.

Since his is a iliary gae, ranks areiporan. So were pouring over hisory books odiscover he appropriae ranks o use (difficul insoe cases, as he Russians changed heres a lo

during he decades leading up o our ie period)and hen weaking he o reflec he ove o airships and so on.

Bu I abou 90% done wih developing

he book and is likely o head o edi hisweek and suddenly I realize ha even ousideof hose weaks o naval ranks for he oveo air ranks, if soeone doesn have a lo ofgrounding in naval iliary, hen os of heranks won have any appropriae conex whenheyre used for noable crews, in he soryficion and so on. So ha ean quickly geingshor descripions for wha each of he Briishranks represen insofar as responsibiliies; isa Briish ex, so is os appropriae haheyd ore fully covering heir own ranks. the

players, hen, can exrapolae appropriaely forhe oher seven epires, bu i provides haiporan conex I looking for..

Anoher ineresing las inue addiion ha

been he overs and shakers sidebars. theresnoable capains and ships for each facion, ocourse, bu I realized ha while uch of heficion will focus a ha level, if you wan hescope of larger geopoliical ficion o have solidrelevance o a reader, you need o provide soe

wrie-ups for a leas one over and shaker ineach facion. Geing ha generaed and foldedin lierally as I speak; Word docuen open. Andin fac, jus finished up an Im wih he edior osolidify when Ill urn i over o her and when ilbe back o eLOVE progress!

So looking back o he Playes_1 versionof he Leviathans rulebook (daed April 10h,2008), is fascinaing o see how soehingsreained relaively unchanged hrough 5ieraions of he rules (he 5h is in one finalplayes, so wha will publish will be he 6h),

while ohers have radically changed.As I began he core

work on hese rules

I really waned ory and eliinae asany dice rolls aspossible, while alsoproviding an iron-sides aesheic.By ha I ean abanging away aeach ohers arorwih no resulsvisible hroughone or wo orperhaps even hreehis and hen yousuddenly find he

weak spo andyou penerae anddo daage (his

would also have headded benefi of no needing

o rack he wearing away of aror).So as of he firs ieraion he enire gae

was based upon D10s.For exaple, he 3 Gun Baery looked

like his: 8 hexes (maxiu Range), 0 hexes(miniu Range), 1D10 (Daage Dice),1D6 (Locaion Dice), Fire At Will or Fire ForSuppor (types of Aack).

For he odifiers o he aack here were5 of he. Posiive modifier: Silhouee,

targe Daage. Negaive modifiers: AackerDaage, targe moveen, Aror.

Wha ha ean for gae play, based off ofy design goals as I enioned above, is youdgo hrough he following fora o see if youhi/daaged your arge.

1. Check Firing Arc for he weapon

2. Check range o he arge (i.e. if I firinghe 3 Gun BAery enioned above hearge has o be a 8 hexes or less).

3. Selec he Daage Dice (1D10 as noedabove)

4. Selec he Locaion Dice (D6 as noedabove)

5. Roll boh dice in whas called a BreachRoll.

6. Find he Slo (a place occupied by weapons/equipen on a ship) corresponding o heresul of he Locaion Dice.

7. modify he Breach Roll for all 5applicable odifiers (as noed above) andhen copare ha resul o he BreachNuber in he Slo as indicaed by heLocaion Dice (as noed above).

8. If he resul is less han he BreachNuber nohing happens (he ironsidesaesheic). If he resul is equal o or greaer

han he Breach Nuber hen ha Slo isdesroyed.

thas prey uch he basics of coba forhe firs ieraion of he rules. Now consideringhe Breach Nubers on os ships are in hedouble digis he concep of a single 3 GunBaery desroying a Slo is alos non-exisenunless you really sar sacking up soe good

odifiers. However, youll noe under he typeof Aack ha i can Fire For Suppor, whicheans ha all gun baeries of he sae sizeha are able o arge he sae ship (i.e. are inrange and are in he sae firing arc) can bedcobined o increase youre chance of hiing/daaging he arge.

then again you could jus use a biggegun, such as a 12 Gun Baery ha fires3D10 Daage Dice and 2D6 Locaion Dice(eaning i can poenially desroy wo Sloin one salvo) or even an Aerial torpedo hahas 4D10 Daage Dicecourse hose arendirec fire weapons, so Ill delve ino he fun oforpedos a a fuure dae.

Now while he iniial playes was well ovea year ago a his poin, I do reeber hahe core of wha I was rying o accoplish

worked very well. Bu a he end of he dayjus wasn happy ha here sill was so uchadding and subracing and referencing charsSo while I folded in all he playes coenover he nex onh or wo and sen ou henex ieraion of he rules I kep bashing yhead agains he wall of how o achieve all ydesign goals and ake he gae even oreelegan by eliinaing a lo of exraneousadding/subsracing along he way.

Ikeptbashingmyheadagainst

thewallofhow

toachieveall

mydesigngoals

andmakethe

gameeven

moreelegantby

eliminatingalotof

extraneousadding/

substractingalong

theway.


6/105

So I banged and banged on he core concepof how o drop away os of he odifiers in hegae (aking i easier o pick up and play) buo keep hose odifiers wihin he echanics of

play or he gae wouldn be very fun on re-peaplay (all he acics would be issing).Now I rying o reeber where he

epiphany cae froand ry as I igh, Ican. Srange. Regardless, during ha processI realized ha you could ake various dice bellcurves and use ha o approxiae odifiers.

For exaple, hree of he previous odifiersI had were he size of he arge (i.e. differencesbeween Desroyer, Ligh Cruiser, AroredCruiser and Baleship), wheher you weresriking he arge on he sarboard or por sidesor on he bow/sern and he arge oveen.

Addiionally, as I sared working on ha (and

hanks o mike miller for puing ogeher soeruly sick spreadshees o help e prove haswiching o dice bell curves would resul in hesae siuaion as y original D10 + odifiersechanic) I furher realized you could use suchbell curves for weaponry as well.

So under he original core echanic if I wasfiring say a 3 Gun Baery a a arge Id roll2D10, hen poenially add several addiionalodifiers: did he arge ove, wha was hearges silhouee, wha was he arges sizeand so on.

Swiching over o a dice bell curveechanic, hen, os of he odifiers becae

woven ino a se of dice.If we ake he exaple of say he Briish

HmL Raven Desroyer firing a 3 IN GunBaery a he French PontbriandLigh Cruiser(provided is in he righ firing arc and range,of course), Id use a D6 (for he gun baery),

hen if I was hiing he PonbriandsSern or Bow Id roll a D10, while ifI was hiing is Por or SarboardLocaion Id roll a D12. i.e. Id

roll he D6 ogeher wih heD10 or D12 (along wih aD6 Slo Dice) as a BreachRoll, oally he D6 and D10or D12 and coparing ha

value agains he Slo on he argeas indicaed by he Slo Dice.

thanks o hose sick spread shees I wasconfiden I was on he righ rack and sendingi ou o playesing only re-inforced ha ovingos odifiers ino dice curves worked perfecly.

Along he way I ade anoher change,his ie based on he graphics ha wouldevenually appear on each Ship Card (he

record shee used o rack each ships gaesas). While he new dice echanic workedfind, rying o coe up wih a hos of diceicons ha you could easily read and undersand

was proving difficul o say he leas. I was alsoduring his ie I discovered i was acuallycheaper o anufacur he sae size dice andchange he dice facing hen i would be o havea full se of polyhedrals.

those wo conceps hen erged in yhead o color code everyhing. So all he diceare D12 shaped, bu each color coding equalsa differen polyhedral (i.e. heir dice facingreflecs he bell curve): Green = D4, Blue =D6, Yellow = D8, Red = D10 and Black = D12.[For he ah inclined, yes his eans he D8and D10 are no perfec, sandardized D8 andD10 bell curves...bu heyre close enough oonly ake a difference say in every 100 gaesif one side was playing wih LeviathansDice

and he oher side was using sandard D8 andD10 polyhedrals.]

this allowed for a siple se of coloredpips on he Ship Cards o hen easily

showcase which dice should be used undevarious circusances. So aking he exapleabove, a player would look a he 3 IN GunBaery Slo on his HmL Raven and noe heDBlue (grabs a blue dice; i.e. he D6), hen looksa he Ponbriand and eiher grabs a DRed orDBlack (depending upon which Locaion hesriking), adds in he prerequisie D6 Slo Diceosses all he dice in he Breach Roll, adds up hecolored dice for a final value and copares hao he Slo Nuber indicaed by he Slo Dice.

Now uliaely I furher weaked andrefined his se-up, adding in addiional dicecobinaions for various siuaions ha

enhanced acical play (obviously Ill ge inohose down he line). Addiionally, I didndup every odifierhere are sill odifierbased on aacker and arge daage harefused o be elded ino dicebu heyre sofew ha during play i doesn feel encuberedlike oher gaes where a half dozen o a dozenodifiers igh be applied.

However, a is core I fel Id found he keyo aking Leviathans exacly wha I wanedi o be. Relaively easy o pick up and play(due o everyhing being so visually based), yereaining all he iporan echanics ha youneed for re-playabiliy fun (oveen, rangeand so on are all iporan and you us playo he srenghs of your ships and facion). Andha senien has only been re-inforced acrosseveral large playesscan wai o ge up aQSR so you all can ry i ou yourselves andsee how I did.


7/106

Afer finalizing he concep of ovingeveryhing o he visual-based dice iconsechanic, I found in y own playess haId siplified a lile oo uch. there wasn

enough differeniaion in weapon ranges andarge oveen o encourage acics. this wassuppored alos universally hrough playesfeedback.

Now here was a few oher probles haarose ha were relaively easy o deal wih. Forexaple because he dice are so uch salleron Desroyers (o siulae boh heir sallerprofile, speed and agiliy), hey can be difficulo hi. However, iniially Id given he oohigh of Breach Nubers, aking he far oopowerful.

Anoher silly issue is ha he Sern and BowBreach Nubers were relaively in line wih he

Por and Sarboard values. No only is ha noaccurae for we navy ships, bu i also reducedhe need for aneuvering acics.

Boh of hose were very easy fixes. I droppedall Desroyer Breach Nubers by 2 (regardlessof Locaion), hen I dropped ALL ship BowBreach Nubers by 1 and ALL ship SernBreach Nubers by 2. So yes, ha ean heSerns on he Desroyers dropped by 4. Ifel huge, bu once you dove in a played wihuliple ship types ogeher he Desroyersinsanly fel righ where hey should be.

So hose ype of issues were relaively easy ofix. Bu weapon ranges and arge oveenproved a uch hornier proposiion. I kickedhis one around for weeks rying o find heos elegan soluion. And a he end of heday, I believe I did. In boh insances i ayno reflec realiy as well as oher gaes, bu

wihin he gae aesheic of Leviathans, I feli worked jus fine.

Firs was he weapons. Originally I siplyhad a char of weapons: 3, 6, 9, 12. Andhe char lised he dice o roll, he ype ofaacks i could ake and he range in hexes.Prey sandard. However, wih he dice/colorcoding opion saring o open y eyes o allhe possible ways I could coninue o ake hegae easier o play, I decided o ove alos

all of ha direcly ono he Ship Card Slo fora given weapon.

As you can see by he wo Ship Card excerpsabove, in addiion o he nae, weve now godaage, range, as well as he ype of aacksa given weapon can ake (he riangle eans

i can also perfor a Brackeing Fire aack inaddiion o a sandard aack). And in doingso I was able o easily spli he range ino wobrackes o help encourage oveen. Forhose Gun Baery Slos above, anyhing up osix hexes you grab he yellow dice (D8) and addi o he Breach Roll; anyhing 7 o 12 hexes

you grab he blue dice (D6) and add i o heBreach Roll.

Anoher grea side benefi of duping achar and oving everyhing ono he ShipCards is i allowed us o ebrace he real wor ldflavors of he various syle and ype of weaponsfielded by differen facions. Originally all ships

ouned 5 Gun Baeriesbu he Frenchdidn use ha ype of erinology. So whilehe gae echanics of hose wo guns areidenical, one feels ore French (138) andone ore English (5 IN), which really helps oold each facions play ideniy.

Anoher grea side effec of his ove isha i allows us o really play around wih hedice and wih ranges o siulae he differen

weapons available. For exaple, if Id suck wiha char, i would have 4 differen weapons oni and any ie I wan o add a new weapon Idneed o ry and publish a new char. By ovingo he Slos, hough, you can play around wihdifferen daage/range profiles o increasegae acics wih ease. Afer all, if youvedone he hoework, he range of weaponsavailable during his ie in he real world isasonishingbeing able o fold ha breadhino he gae is cool.

If you look a he hree Ship Card excerpsabove, youll see wha I ean. the 3 IN and he75 Gun Baeries are idenical; he 3 IN ioff a Briish Ship Card and he 75 is off a

French Ship Card. Youve hen go he 65Gun Baery, which youll noice has he saeDaage Dice as he 75, bu shaves off 2hexes a he op end, eaning is a gun youneed o ge close o useand since he FrenchPonrbriand Ligh Cuirser ouns 4 of heseon a sidedon le ha ship say oo close!

Finally, I used he sae concep when dealingwih arge oveen. Again, I was hoping ocopleely avoid his, bu playesing showed

we siply couldnavoid creaingsoe echanic ohelp accenuae he

need for acicaloveen.Looking a he

Ship Card expera righ, if a shiphas oved ou ofis hex, you grab ablack die and addi o he BreachRoll (he dice iconis agains a greenbackground, as ingo o help youreeber) andif he ship didnove ou of ishex you grab wored dice and addhe o he BreachRoll (he dice iconis agains a redbackground, as in sop o help you reeber)

As a final coen on all of his, hereay be soe of you wondering if his gae igeing oo coplex and is perhaps soehing

you wouldn wan o playespecially wihe harping abou how siple I rying okeep i, relaively speaking. Uliaely hasgoing o be your call, obviously. Bu a is basic

level (leaving ou he fun Captains Manuaplug-in rules Ill alk abou down he line) iexcepionally inuiive, wih everyhing visuabased. As enioned in y previous blog, even

wih he added coplexiy of he spli rangesand win arge oveen dice, is sill a caseof siply looking a your Ship Card and youopponens Ship Card, aking sure is in rangeand in he righ firing/daage arcs and hengrabbing up he various dice as indicaed andossing he o see if youve cracked youropponens aror!


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As you develop a brand new gae wih ahuge, persisen universe, you always run inohe quesion of how uch sourcebook ficionaerial o include? How uch do you need o

really ierse soeone in he universe and howuch is over-kill?Obviously you run ino he sae siuaion

wih he rules. As Ive enioned previously,Ive been rying very hard o keep he gae playsiply and ye able o sage up easily o variouslevels of coplexiy. Par of ha is spliing herules ino hree rulebooks: Lieutenants Manual(Quick-Sar), Commanders Manual (CoreRules), Captains Manual (Enhanced Rules).Even under ha syse, however, I jus adehe decision o ake several very cool rules ha

were in he Captains Manualand hold he forhe facion expansion box ses weve planned for

down he linehey were jus ha one or woseps oo far for he firs release.Like he rules, you run ino he sae siuaion

wih your universe booka give and ake asyou zero in on jus he righ aoun of info.However, I hink a he core you need o coverhe following:

1. In a iniaures gae wih a sar achine(especially if ha achine is weaked fro

wha we know in he real world), youbeer showcase your cool achine andensure ha as a person finishes up readingha secion hey undersand how cool

your achine is and buy ino i (obviouslyin his case he leviahans).

2. Cover all your ajor geo-poliical facions.In an alernae-hisory seing ha eansshowcasing where he divergence is and

wha akes a facion ineresing. And youbeer ake each facion differen and cool,cause seing up a facion o be he vanillaone or he one ha kicks kicked willhaun you for a life-ie.

3. Personaliies. You need o give a face ohe various facions. In his case you needuber-characers (he overs-and-shakersfor he large-scale poliical arenas). the

Briish Epire isn siply a onolihicgeo-poliical eniy ha sraddles heEarh as is os powerful naion. Inseadis coposed by various people wih heirown agendas, such as Firs Sea Lord Fisherha fough agains he enrenched Briish

we-navy radiions o help forge one of heworlds bes air-fleesand ade a bevy ofeneies along he way.

In addiion o such owering figures youalso need in-he-rench characers; hecapains of ships and so on. Such as tai-sa Kusunagi Sado, who was presen a he

Japanese flees defea a tsushia and in

place of coiing seppuku reained inservice, despie shae, and now coandshe Kuroraikou-class Kuroitsuki (BlackMoon)an exaple of he rebirh of heJapanese Iperial Navy.

Finally, because he leviahans are alsohe sars of he show, clohe hose sarsin heir own personaliies. You don wanhe siply reading abou a FrenchCruiser. You wan he reading abou heDunquerque, which afer a run in wih aGeran baleship in 1907 spors he scarha racks fro her deck o her elecroidanks. A badge of honor her crew refuse o

allow o be fixed.

4. this is a gae abou conflic. Provide soeho spos around he world of where he

various epires are saring o bu-heads.You can hen, in he rules, explain howplayers can ake ha info and wed i o ascenario o ove i far beyond a siplegae of flying ships fighing over a pach ofsky. Insead, your scenario for he evening

is a desperae scrable beween a Briishflee lead by he HmL Leviathan andFrench flee lead by he Jean Bartover heSuez Canaland win or lose he desperae

bale igh jus ignie ino a full-fledgedwar. When he Leviathans world sakeare elded o a gae, a scenario is never

jus a scenario.

5. make sure he very words you useaccenuae he flavor of your universeNow obviously you don wan o go wildIf you hrew in every colloquialis (bohfor he ie period and counry involved)i alos igh be unreadable. Bu yousprinkle in jus enough and i can ake alhe difference. And you also chea where

you can. For exaple, were using Briishspelling hroughou he sourcebook

doesn do uch for hose in Englandha will hopefully pick his up, bu for he

Aerican audience is a suble rick hacan pay big dividends in leing people feehe wind in heir hair and sell he blackpowder and burning coal on he wind ashey read hrough he book.

6. Never forge he power of ar. As wihall he fanasic full-color arwork, Iveapped Doug Chaffee o do all he blackand whie arwork for he ineriorsoe

wonderful scenes ha really capure heflavor of his universe.

Now heres a lo ore suble hings ha goino hisno o enion I keep hinking hereone or wo hings I wan o ry and slide in andhis is afer he books already been edied andis on he verge of heading o layoubu hashow i works. Never saisfied, always pushingand always hoping he end produc is as cool a

you see i in your head.


9/108

I firly in he gae design concep capha any gae like Leviathansneeds o have ayea! oen. Or o provide a ore visceralexaple, i needs o have a oen like he kid

on he bike a he end ofThe Incredibles: thawas oally wicked! A oen in he gaewhere you ge a chance hrough a lucky die rollo suddenly change he ables and ha forcesplayers o cheer or groan ouloud. Obviously ican be oo easy or i would happen oo ofen,no only upseing he balance of gae play bualso aking he oen undane hrough oouch repeiion.

For Leviathanshis oen is he Breakingthe Keel Roll. Once you ake he Breach Rolland deerine he Breach Roll resul and areready o copare ha o he Breach Nuberin a slo as indicaed by he Slo Dice, if you

hi a slo ha was previously desroyed (evenin he sae urn) youve a chance for doingaddiional daage.

Now wo rules ieraions ago his wouldiediaely spark a Breaking the Keel Roll.

Youd grab 2DRed (2D10) and roll. then youdadd a +1 odifier for every desroyed sloanywhere on he arge ship. Youd hen add anaddiional +1 odifier for any desroyed slosin he locaion being hi (is aking he forceof he blow, so desroyed slos apply a doubleodifier). You add all hose odifiers o he2DRed resul and if ha nuber equal orexceeds he Srucural Inegriy on he argeship, he keel has been broken and he shipears apar and cascades down in a fiery deahacross he landscape below.

However, while ha tha was oally

wicked! oen worked perfecly for hefeel and syle ofLeviathans(and for he gaebalance) we acually found here was a proble.I played in several gaes where I was hiing a

locaion wih only a single slo desroyed (saySlo 3) and due o lucky die rolls I droppedalos half a dozen shos all ino Slo 3 and dueo he SI involved eiher he Breaking he KeelRoll was ipossible, or nearly so. For exaplea Baleship has an SI of 30ha eans youhave a lo of slos o desroy before heres evena chance he keel will break (appropriae forhe size and iporance of he Baleshipbuno very fun for he player).

Ye while i was appropriae, i sill couldlead o siuaions when far oo any rolls wereineffecive. Now as I enioned any onhsago, he aesheic of Leviathans is an iron-

sides ype of feel, where you bang away for afew shos wihou any effec bu hen suddenlyfind he weak spo in he aror and blowhrough o desroy soehing. However, even

wih ha aesheic we were geing oo anyof hose.

Srangely enough, i was on he 12 hourdrive a few onhs back for a faily reunionha I sruck upon he soluion; wih he failyosly asleep a one poin and he usicblaring, he hind brain o gnaws on problesendlessly and you discard a dozen concepsbefore he righ one finally pops up.

So going back o he op, you ake a BreachRoll and if he Slo Dice indicaes a previouslydesroyed slo, hen heres a chance for furherdaage. However, now wha you do is keep allhe D12s he sae bu re-roll he Slo Dice. If

he new resul indicaes an un-desroyed slocopare he already rolled Breach Roll resulagains he new indicaed Breach Nuber; if iequals or exceeds i, ha new slo is desroyed

(i.e. he shell ubled around behind he aroof ha locaion, crashing ino soehing newand desroying i.

If he new resul of he re-rolled Slo Diceindicaed anoher previously desroyed sloagain, tHEN you ake he Breaking theKeel roll as described above (i.e. he shodidn uble around bu drove deeper ino hebowels of he ship).

this soluion worked ou very well. Playersdidn need o ry and keep rack of anyhing(soehing Ive anaged o alos copleelyavoid), Breach Rolls significanly decreased inhe nuber of ineffecive rolls ha occurred

once a locaion sared o ake daage, andof course we go o keep he tha was oallywicked! oen.

And ha, by he way, covers alos everyaspec of he Lieutenants Manual: The Quick-Start Rules. Once we release i and you sarreading and geing ready o play your owngaes, youll have he behind-he-scenes ohe why behind alos he enire bookle.

As a final aside, I happen o be lookinga he sie over-all o see wha addiionaupdaes need o occur and I realized ha DougChaffee did no have his biography on hepage. Considering is alos all his sunning

visuals ha are bringing his universe o life(no o enion his sellar career and skillsse he brings o our able), Ive recified haiediaely.


10/109

Leviathansis a seapunk gae ha siulaescoba beween warships ha have aken ohe air in an alernae hisory 1910. the kingleviahans, baleships, are he larges vessels.

maneuvering in suppor are ligh cruisers,desroyers and oher vessels. Will you capainyour flee for king and counry, expanding yournaions power and becoing legend? Or will

you fall f ro he sky, forgoen?You deerine he oucoe!the Leviathans Core Box Setwill include he

following:

3 rulebooks o ease players fro hequick-sar rules all he way o enhancedplay for endless fun.8 high-qualiy plasic iniauresrepresening ships fro he Briish and

French flees.12 Ship Cards ha expand a players flee,including a baleship, wo ligh cruisersand hree desroyers.12 full-color Recogniion Cards hacorrespond o each Ship Card, includinghe ships service hisory on he back.Leviathans Primerha deails he alernaehisory of Leviathans, he echnologybehind he grea ships, he eigh ajor airpowers of 1910, along wih inor powers,and he growing ho spos of conflicaround he world.2 novellas hrowing you direcly ino heacion of he universe.

teplaes o aide gae play.2 18 x 22 board-gae qualiy aps,prined on boh sides.12 dice

Unil hen, however, he Lieutenants Manualis now available!

the Leviathans Lieutenants Manualis a 32-page PDF offering a coplee inroducion ohe new, innovaive Leviathans gae syse,including playing aps, ready-o-cu-ou-and-use Ship Cards and couners. All a player needso bring o he able are a few ses of polyhedralgaing dice (D4, D6, D8, D10 and D12s) and

in inues heyll be scouring he skies a hehel of several housand ons of war-forgedeal looking for he ail-ale sign of eneysoke on he horizon.

Lieutenants Manual: Quick-Start

Rules PDFon Catalyst

http://www.battlecorps.com/

catalog/index.php?cPath=219

In Augus 2009 Caalys Gae Labs pushedhe boundaries of publishing as he firs osiulaneously release a ajor role-playinggae publicaionEclipse PhaseunderCreaive Coons and hrough he radiionaldisribuions nework.

Caalys coninues o push he boundariesof publishing as he firs ajor publisher orelease a iniaures gae under CreaiveCoons wih he firs roll ou ofLeviathansbooks in he Lieutenants Manual. AddiionalPDF releases will occur in he coing weeks

and onhs leading up he release of he boxse gae nex spring.

While Leviathans is seapunk in flavorno single definiion covers he genre anyoreinsead, i is a collage of conceps and ideas, evenif he core reains he sae. this ype of ixi and ake i yours enaliy fis flawlessly

wih Creaive Coons, allowing anyone haloves seapunk o ake Leviathansand akei heirs in wha ever way hey desire.

If you receive his PDF fro a friend whoshared i in accordance wih he CreaiveCoons license, and you like i, please supporhe cause by buying he PDF. this is sill anexperien and we hope o ake i work. Ifi does, he success ofLeviathansalong wihhe growing success of Eclipse Phaseay

very well affec he way all gae copanies goabou publishing gaes in he fuure. So if youlike his direcion, we need your suppor!
http://www.monstersinthesky.com/http://www.monstersinthesky.com/http://www.monstersinthesky.com/http://www.monstersinthesky.com/http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=219

Documents

CAT31691p_DevelopmentJournal.pdf