Friday, May 30, 2025

Kludgebuckets - Customizable Vehicles for the Sanic Hack

You wish your ride was this cool - (Source)

kludge: something, especially computer hardware or software, that has been put together from whatever is available, especially when it does not work very well 

rustbucket: An old, neglected vehicle, usually a car, a freighter, or a truck. 

Ergo; They're called Kludgebuckets.

    "Kludgebucket" is the colloquial term for any non-standard watercraft cobbled together by an enterprising Islander. While capable of functioning as transportation, they act as more of a home-base for their crew, and are iterated upon over multiple voyages. It isn't surprising to see a Kludgebucket with multiple pieces of completely unrelated vehicles; land, air, or sea, stapled in varying configurations, with radio transmitters, gatling guns, and even multiple vending machines installed.

    Kludgebuckets are managed via a Grid System, similar to Mausritter Item Card Inventory Management. (For the purposes of this blog post, we are going to assume a specific size for these grids, but know that I'm writing this with no balance testing whatsoever. Let's say they're 4 by 4 to start and we'll revisit the specifics later.) To facilitate this, I will be introducing a new card type- Normally, cards come in 1 Slot or 2 Slot sizes, with the latter being for Bulky objects. For Kludgebucket Core Parts, new 2 by 2 cards are to be added, taking up the same space as 4 single slot cards. These cards are intended for overly large items; Chassis, Wings, A tree house uprooted WITH the tree, etc. While a character COULD carry one of these in their regular inventory,  they're intended to be Kludged onto their bucket. However, if a player wants to spend 4 whole inventory slots to equip the cab of a bus as a battering ram, I'm not going to stop them.

     Core Parts are labeled with Stars, ranging from 1 to 3. These Stars are an approximation of size and buoyancy, but are mostly there to estimate the number of crew it can safely keep afloat. 1 Star can hold 2 to 3 people before capsizing, doubling to 6-ish at 2 Stars and 12-or-so at 3 Stars. A Ski-doo, for example, would be a 1 Star Core Part, while a School Bus would be 3 Stars. Anything larger would arguably no longer be a Kludgebucket, but rather a regular sailing ship with some weird stuff tacked on. For every Star added by a Core Part, there must be Propulsion and Power of an equivalent Star. That Ski-doo's Whirly-gig Copter Blades (Propulsion, 1 Star) could be powered by a single set of Foot Paddles (Power,1 Star) for example, but you'd need at 3 times as many of both to move that 3 Star School Bus. Conversely, multiple parts of lower Star value could be used to power a single Propulsion part, as long as their values align. 

    Auxiliary parts, like radio transceivers, sonar or fuzzy dice, are regular sized item cards with the 1 x 2 Bulky cards used for valuable machinery. These are installed around the core parts, where the Kludgebucket's grid will allow. Any free space can hold any item, instead of having a dedicated hold.

    Core and Auxillary Parts are meant to be found as rewards for Quests or by scavenging wrecked Buckets found as you travel. Similar to Fits, a DM should only need to invent a handful of Thematic options based on the Island they've prepared, the players will pursue what interests them.

Star Rank Core Propulsion Power
Canoe Paddle Wheel (Small) Foot Paddles
Jet Ski Whirly-gig Oars
Motorcycle Cloth Sail and a Fan Large Hamster Wheel
☆☆ Smart Car Airplane Wings Steam Engine
☆☆ Tugboat Single Turbin Magnets
☆☆ Tree House (w/Tree) Sea Creature (Tamed?) Carrot on a String (For Sea Creature)
☆☆☆ Submarine Rocket Jets Gasoline Engine
☆☆☆ School Bus Paddle Wheels (Large) Coal Furnace
☆☆☆ Blimp Cab Hot Air Baloon Cola and Mentos

Friday, May 9, 2025

How Tricked out is this Ride?

Oh, boys~!

This post and others like it are made possible by members of my Patreon, where you can see Game WIPs and Previews of future blogposts a week early! Thank you in particular to Nebula Bash for your continued support!

Howdy, Farmhands!

    Among the many ways I "failed" at traditional masculinity as a child, (as much as any one can do so, mind. Gender roles are bullshit!) I never became A Car Guy. While many a youth saw the wheels and hubcaps and fenders and was overcome with a desire to get behind the wheel, I couldn't really care less. I consider motor vehicles to be not unlike horses. Mysterious creatures I am to respect from afar, but never understand. The primary difference is that a car isn't born with hatred in it's heart.

Friday, May 2, 2025

Of Dice and Men - Opinions about Rolling in OSR Games

 

Well? They ain't gonna roll themselves. - (Source, no affiliation)

This post and others like it are made possible by members of my Patreon, where you can see Game WIPs and Previews of future blogposts a week early!
Thank you in particular to Backyard Critter for your continued support!

Howdy, Farmhands. 

    I am a newcomer to NSR/POSR game design. I spent the majority of the early 2020's being staunchly and loudly against anything even slightly resembling an elfgame! For all intents and purposes, I "don't go here." Being new to a community slash movement slash corpse that's been fractured into multiple sub-branches of design for about as long as it's exiswted means that I have a lot to catch up on. A barrier I keep bumping into is how much of the OSR's Wisdom is shared in maxims.

Friday, April 25, 2025

Making Do - I Played a Solo Game at Work

Eat your heart out, novelty dice manufacturers

Howdy, Farmhands.

I got bored at work. It's one of those jobs with a lot of sitting in one location while waiting for very important things to happen, and depending on where you're stationed, you're not allowed to access your cell phone for the duration. Normally, my attention is needed frequently enough that I don't go stir crazy, but on slow days, it could be an honest to God HOUR before I'm required to do more than look pretty. This is the perfect time to let my mind wander and daydream, so I played a solo game in my head. Which is where most solo games are played, but I had no access to dice or prompts or rulebooks or anything. 

Friday, April 4, 2025

What That Dog Doin'?

 

Pictured: The Goodest Girl
Howdy, Farmhands.

    I've got a new dog. A foster dog, to be precise. My Beautiful Wife (and I by extension) volunteers with a local rescue, specializing in Dachshunds. We've helped a couple of puppers find new homes, and acted as a weekend get-away for new arrivals who weren't sure where they were going just yet. This current baby looks like she'll be staying with us for a hot minute, though, as not only were we the first point of contact for the previous owner, we were the Fosters of choice while she went through some surgeries to remove calcium deposits that had formed in her bladder before she joined us on the farm. 

    Her name is Wendy, and she is a precious angel. People of earth, send your love to Wendy.

    Having a Dog makes you think things you might not otherwise. For example, frequently now, I will find myself asking "What That Dog Doin'?" This requires I visually confirm the current activity of the dog and as a bonus, look at said dog. And I've already established that Wendy is a Very Good Dog, so that's hardly an inconvenience. Not all Dogs have to be dogs, though. It would probably be funnier to attribute Dog-status to things that are not Dogs. Like Bears. Deer, maybe. Particularly scraggly Opossums.  Legally Distinct Ankhegs, whatever those are. Below is a d20 table of vague Dog-like behaviors that a "Dog" may be "Doin'" at any given point in time.

    Now if you excuse me, Wendy has flopped over for a belly rub, and I cannot keep her waiting for fear that my mortal soul will be judged accordingly.

Until Next Time,

    Farmer Gadda

Kludgebuckets - Customizable Vehicles for the Sanic Hack

You wish your ride was this cool - ( Source ) kludge : something, especially computer hardware or software, that has been put together from...