New Project: Witch Hunter Player Mat

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  • June 17, 2014 at 2:56 pm #151307
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hey everyone,

    Six years ago, when I started a teen roleplaying program at my (then) local public library, one of the tools I put together for teaching kids the Savage Worlds system was a player “mat” (for lack of a better term). It was meant to be sort of like a table place mat, with spaces to help complete neophytes learn the different dice mechanics and simple prompts for using the game system. It got a lot of good reviews at the time and I still use mine to teach new players the ropes.

    Anyway, the thought occurred to me over the weekend that something similar for Witch Hunter organized play might make a handy tool for GMs, especially with the 2nd edition fresh out and (hopefully) some fresh faces showing up at Revelations tables. I’ve started putting things together and would like some input from WHR judges as to what sort of stuff the newbies (and maybe the oldies) are really having trouble grasping with the new system. Here’s sort of a breakdown of what I have so far:
    • Dice Pool: Quick instructions on how to assemble and read your dice pool results
    • Actions: Types (Move, Attack, etc.) and Speed (Trivial, Quick, etc.) of Actions.
    • In a Fight: Prompts for using various Stances and different combat actions, very similar to the one from the SW mat.
    • Gauges (again, for lack of a better term): use markers to track “fluctuating” abilities: Initiative, Avoidance, Strain, and Health Levels (with penalties and roll requirements).
    • Movin’ Around: the three primary movement actions in play.

    Like the SW mat, there aren’t a lot of hard numbers and formulas. Just prompts to get new players engaged in the mechanics without overwhelming them with hard data.

    Anyone think this would be helpful? I should have a draft up today.

    Tom

    June 17, 2014 at 3:07 pm #262962
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    To give you a better idea, here is a png of the current draft as it stands.

    Thoughts?

    June 17, 2014 at 3:18 pm #262963
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Looks very cool.

    As I go over some things in the next few weeks I’ll make any necessary comments.

    June 17, 2014 at 5:47 pm #262967
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    This looks pretty slick!

    June 19, 2014 at 3:54 pm #263117
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Here is the semi-final “prettified” version. Might need to change the trade dressing for the pdf, but this is pretty close to what I was originally going for.

    Still waiting for some feedback from you other GMs. What details are you running into with players that need to be explained over and over again that isn’t covered on this. I’m sure there is something.

    June 19, 2014 at 4:08 pm #263119
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I think this will be very helpful for Players and GMs alike without having to consult the book all the time if your are a novice. Thank you, I really look forward to the final result.

    June 19, 2014 at 4:10 pm #263120
    drafit
    Participant

    That looks very, very nice, Tom.

    June 19, 2014 at 7:49 pm #263141
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Couldy ou post a larger image?

    June 19, 2014 at 8:29 pm #263148
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I didn’t want to post anything larger in case Henry, Eric or anyone else on Team Paradigm had an issue with me using their trade dressing.

    If there are no objections, I can have a PDF ready tonight.

    June 19, 2014 at 9:14 pm #263151
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I was going to provide feedback but the small color one isn’t clear enough.

    June 19, 2014 at 9:21 pm #263152
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Tom those look sharp

    June 19, 2014 at 10:08 pm #263153
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I didn’t realize the large B&W was the same….

    my comments:

    1) I think having the 3 main stances and their wagers would be useful
    2) The areas for Initiative, Strain, and Avoidance are rather large. Is there a way to condense them or maybe just put a big circle and someone could put a d10 in the spot representing the number? I get that the numbers written could be used with coins, tokens, etc. but it’s a lot of room to show 3 numbers that don’t change a lot.
    3) Perhaps in the “Dice Pools” you could have lines where people could write their own descriptions? So one player might have Unarmed Dice Pool, Casting Pool, etc.
    4) The columsn of “Action Speed” and “Action Type” look like they correspond right and left, that could get confusing.
    4b) Trivial might also have (with other action) or something to indicate how it’s used

    Those are immediate ones

    John

    June 19, 2014 at 11:36 pm #263158
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I was going to provide feedback but the small color one isn’t clear enough.

    Oh! The content is the same as on the large b&w version I posted earlier. Just prettier. \":)\"

    June 20, 2014 at 1:09 am #263166
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    1) I think having the 3 main stances and their wagers would be useful
    I thought about that, but I worry that you can easily overwhelm a new player with numbers. But I think adding a “remember your wager” line under Be AGGRESSIVE would be good for this.

    2) The areas for Initiative, Strain, and Avoidance are rather large. Is there a way to condense them or maybe just put a big circle and someone could put a d10 in the spot representing the number? I get that the numbers written could be used with coins, tokens, etc. but it’s a lot of room to show 3 numbers that don’t change a lot.

    I came very close to doing this originally, but went with the number slides instead. The reason they use so much space is I sized it for a half-inch glass bead.

    That said, I think I’ll make this change and see how it looks. I think it makes a lot of sense and I’ll need the space.

    3) Perhaps in the “Dice Pools” you could have lines where people could write their own descriptions? So one player might have Unarmed Dice Pool, Casting Pool, etc.

    Well, ideally these mats are laminated. So there’s no reason you couldn’t make notes with a visa-vie pen, or slap a post-it note full of combos on it. Again, I just worry about slapping lots of numbers and hard combos in front of the player. Besides, the GM is gonna call for a Melee+Strength roll anyway. Plus, I worry about tying the GM’s hands with hard combo formulas. Yeah, I know they were prescribed in 1st edition but 2nd has moved away from that somewhat.

    4) The columsn of “Action Speed” and “Action Type” look like they correspond right and left, that could get confusing.

    Good point. I’ll adjust that.

    4b) Trivial might also have (with other action) or something to indicate how it’s used.

    Another good point. I’ll work on that.

    Thanks!
    Tom

    June 20, 2014 at 7:00 pm #263231
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    The latest update with John’s suggestions.

    EDIT: Strances? We don’t need no stinking Strances! \":P\"

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