Nuts & Bolts #131 - Review: Hex Kit

This map took me less than 30 minutes...

This is, I think, a first for my blog: a review of software. I'm not the most computer literate guy around. For the past decade or so I've been getting by using Chromebooks at home and whatever they gave me to use at work. I always knew it was a stop gap measure, but for a good while the Chromebooks worked for my needs. The one biggest downside was their lack of software support.

When I back Torment: Tides of Numenera, I knew I would eventually have to buy a "real" PC to be able to play, and when I later backed Cecil Howe's Hex Kit mapping tool I figured "Well, I already have to buy a PC..."

Both Torment and Hex Kit have been available for month now, but it was only this past weekend that I finally bought into a new PC. It's hardly a supercomputer, but considering I've been getting by on Chromebooks it feels a bit like on to me!

All of that preamble is to explain why I'm reviewing something that has been available since April. That said I'm so impressed with the artistic quality of Mr. Howe's Hex Kit map hexes, and the ease of use for the Hex Kit tool that I felt "better late than never" would apply.

Hex Kit is an inexpensive ($15) mapping tool for PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) published by Cone Of Negative Energy (Mr. Howe's publishing self) via itch.com. It's a tool that allows one to use pre-render tiles to build hex maps. The above image was constructed mostly from the "Fantasyland" set (an add-on that I also purchased) which consists of literally hundreds of hexes in numerous styles with a few dozen of each style being available. You can click on farmland for instance and just quickly fill in a 6 by 6 hex sheet with the following at random:

Alternately I can choose a specific tile and populate the same, I can even rotate the tiles to form a neat and tidy look if I choose:

It's quick and easy and even a caveman can do it. These tiles are gorgeous because ... they're hand painted. Mr. Howe hand paints these on paper and then scans them. This project is a huge labor of love as much as it is a useful tool for players and GMs. The lead in image was created for the DCC game I am playing in where the characters just arrived on the Purple Planet. Since the GM (+James Walls) said it would be a hex crawl I jumped at the chance to not only fully embrace the classic hex crawl but also to use this awesome new tool I'd finally started to play with.

I back the kickstarter, and got in for short money, but I can't stress how impressed I am with this from a tool standpoint. It supports multiple layers (so you could even create a fog of war layer to hide stuff from your players) and features numerous unique places of interest, roads, rivers, coasts, forests, mountains, hills, etc. There's even a space themed add-on set that you could use to create maps for sci-fiction games like Stars Without Number, Star Trek, or Star Wars. And every tile is something that was hand painted, and scanned. Every. One.

Oh and on the off chance you aren't already sold there's a dungeon kit in works. Also you can output random maps with barely any clicks at all. Check this out!

I don't wholeheartedly recommend stuff with this kind of wild abandon very often, but I think for the price this is this kind of tool that any GM or player with a hankering for maps will probably be happy with. I do recommend you grab the Fantasyland expansion however. While the base set of black and white tiles is still not only very functional, but also attractive, these tiles really pop if you get into the full color sets.

As a before after I converted my MS Paint map of Blackstone Ford from my Shadow of the Demon Lord game to Hex Kit in about an hour. Here's the before/after.

State of the Blog(ger) - Connui

Since Gen Con I've been feeling a weird gaming funk. My weekly game hasn't started back up, my monthly Gods of the Fall game came to an end because some players had to drop out (which I totally respect, you gotta take care of you) and I felt that trying to continue would be more effort than worth, my monthly game of DCC as player hasn't yet resumed (tomorrow!) and, as a result, I've been feeling a bit less inspired of late. I've been reading Blades in the Dark recently, in on-off spurts, a few pages at a time, but beyond that I haven't really read anything or played anything RPG related of late.

Basically I am feeling a post convention ennui ... or connui as a friend dubbed it.

Connui: That low feeling after riding the high of being surrounded by the hobby you love for 2+ days

I think the fact that the blog is 3 years old now is also a factor because after 720 posts in that time (that's 1 post per 1.5 days! over 3 years) I'm at a point now where the blog has the least structure of it's history with only Nuts & Bolts holding true since the very beginning.

Whilst I'd like to be able to jump right back into most old posting routine it's clear to me that will not happen immediately. I need to realign myself and find that creative groove again. I'll do what I can to continue with at least occasional posts, but my schedule may not return to "normal" for some time.

We'll find out together I suppose.

Nuts & Bolts #130 - Review: Kamandi Challenge #7

Kamandi Challenge #8 came out last week, but because of GenCon and general work business as well as #RPGaDay2017 I didn't have time to even read the issue until this past weekend. However, now I have and here's my thoughts. Spoilers henceforth.

Prior issue reviews:

• Review: Kamandi Challenge #1
• Review: Kamandi Challenge #2
• Review: Kamandi Challenge #3
• Review: Kamandi Challenge #4
• Review: Kamandi Challenge #5
• Review: Kamandi Challenge #6

Vitals

Published By: DC Comics • 31 pages • $3.99 • full color • Art: Dan Jurgens • Words: Marguerite Bennett

What's In It?

Spoilers ahead folks last warning!




Everybody kosher? OK! When we last left Kamandi he was plummeting to his probable death in the fires of an atomic reactor within the city sized robot bear Mishkingrad. As he falls he realizes that he still holds the Cortex Crown of the city. Donning the crown he uses the power of the city to build a protective cage around himself and exit the reactor to save his friend Renzi.

Instead he gets grabbed up but some dog mutants calling themselves the Bulldog Britanneks who save both he and Renzi and escape the great bear before its apparent destruction. We learn that Renzi is an android (damn, would have been cooler if his atomic heart was cybernetic), and that the Britanneks have been raiding the Comuni-bears for some time. We also learn that the giant dirigible that they are traveling on was designed by Kamandi's mother. Before we can learn more something strikes the dirigible and downs it.

Stranded in the wastelands and under attack by an Ice Wizard and some Polar Parasites Kamandi and his companions make a desperate bid for survival. The parasites however breach their lines and break their defensive position. Fleeing from the tide of parasites and some of their own, now under parasitic control, Kamandi and the others return to the wreck of their ship. Kamandi realizes that the Control Crown will work with all the "salvage" from the wreck since was all once part of Mishkingrad.

Using the crown Kamandi is able to turn the tide and crush the the parasites and free the controlled dogs. Using the crap to build a new balloon the dogs depart Kamandi, leaving him with provisions and information. Kamandi, now on his own once more sets off south in a glider to try and find his mother, but one parasite had stowed away ...

This issue finally gave us a solid hint at where Kamandi may find his parents; fitting for the first issue in the back half of the year. Like every issue thus far it offered a fairly stand along adventure. Unfortunately the characters were fairly flat. There was little in the way of development for any one character and in the end it makes for a somewhat flat story. The pulpy action stories of the first half of the year were fine, but as the series gets older it's becoming a little less entertaining to see these isolated adventures. Here's hoping things begin to truly build toward a climax in December and not just stumble along until an end conveniently happens.

Setting-wise this issue did offer some more interesting developments. From the apparently magical Ice Wizards to the sci-fi hive mind parasites that can hijack a creature there was a decent amount of new additions to the world. Unfortunately I'd have liked a little more exposition about the Ice Wizards and their exile and even about the Britanneks and their home (since these stories are far too short to show much and must often give detail via exposition).

Overall it was decent, but one of my least favorite of the series thus far. If I weren't looking at the world building as well as story this would have been far far my least favorite from a story standpoint, feeling a bit rushed and overstuffed.

Rating: 70% - An OK story that did manage to forward the larger story in small steps.