Livestreaming and announcements

[Teldurn]

Hello again, all! I have been quite busy this past year or so, indeed. Many things to announce.

The first and most recent is that as of this week, I decided to try my hand by taking my weekly game of HQP into the world of livestreaming! I set up a Twitch account (http://twitch.tv/teldurn) where, if you follow me, you can be notified when my game goes live and you can watch while we play! After the game ends, I upload the video to YouTube for posterity, since I don't believe Twitch saves videos for longer than month or two.

This is a link to the first experimental episode on Youtube. Unfortunately in the campaign, we are on quest 13 - almost at the last quest! Not a very good place to start watching. But thankfully the group decided to continue a new campaign from the start, which I will record.

The second announcement is that I recently got back from GenCon, which if you haven't heard of it, is the largest gaming convention, which if I remember correctly, 2016 saw about 80,000 attendees. GenCon is "The best four days in gaming" and they aren't lying with that slogan. There are countless tabletop games, board games, card games, video games, LARP, fantasy/scifi/steampunk artists and authors and vendors of all flavors of all this stuff. And lots of cosplayers everywhere you look. And speaking panels about all of this stuff. It's just a gigantic geeky, nerdy mecca. Basically the only types of games that GenCon DOESN'T do are the ones you find in a casino, and that's it.

Why do I mention this? Because specifically for this year's GenCon, I ran an in-person game of HeroQuest Prime for some of my friends, most of which knew through Google+ but met for the first time there. The game was a smashing success. It was also the most brutal quest I've ever ran in the past 2 or 3 years that I've been running this game - I got 3 characters killed and almost got a 4th! 2 of those deaths were the same player, heh! Here are some shots of the game.




The third and final announcement is that HeroQuest Prime is evolving! Since I don't own any rights to the Gary Chalk art, the name HeroQuest, or the identity property of the combat dice, up to this point I've just been sharing and using the game freely and non-commercially. But starting very soon I will be rebranding the game as Broadsword! True veterans of the game will pronounce this as BRODE SODE!
(This is the reference video to that pronunciation. Let the video load then hit 7. You're welcome. Or just watch the whole thing if you haven't seen it before!)

This will be the working logo and byline for now, until I see a reason to change it.


I have started the process of looking into creating an LLC company to market this product, just to further cover my ass from potential legal action. All mentions of "HeroQuest" will be scraped off the text and I will be replacing the combat die faces with different ones. I'm pretty sure This is what I've decided it will look like as well. Skulls get replaced with Swords, and you can tell White and Black Shields apart easily.

For all intents and purposes, it will be "HeroQuest with the serial numbers filed off." Thankfully for me, HQP is already a very different game than the base game system that rebranding it as Broadsword and comparing that to the base game system will look like apples and oranges. The only similarities would be the combat die mechanic, but even then, how many other games have dice mechanics with pictures on them instead of numbers?

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

As an additional homage to the base game system, Believe it or not, I've actually been in contact with Gary Chalk himself to see about whether he would give permission to use his artwork for commercial purposes. He actually came back, first wanting to know more details, and then suggested that he might be available to provide all new art in the same style for this game. How awesome is that? I'm still in talks with him for ironing out details on this aspect of it, though.

But just in case he doesn't grant permission, I have a couple backup artists and sources of art that are similar in style.

We'll see where it all goes from here. Exciting stuff!

[Daedalus]

That's a lot of news! We're any more videos made? I recognize that tower, so I for one was happy to see the end of Conquering Despair running.

That's awesome you got together at a real table to play--I once played in an HQ event at Gen Con as well. Those map tiles look expensive to print. Still--so worth it to have them for a premier event that everyone can admire. It appears you went with tile/chits instead of figures. Is this the plan for HQ Prime off-line?

Or perhaps I should ask, are Hero and monster chits the standard for Broadsword? (Love that name.) Until now I haven't heard of an LLC company, but it sounds brilliant. At BGG I've read a doomsayer discouraging a potential game maker by claiming expensive (choking) liability insurance was necessary for any game that contained components. I'm glad to read you are pursuing a more practical strategy.

Wow, Gary Chalk art would be great! I only wonder if he would be too expensive--hopefully not. If you go with another artist on the other hand, I'm sure the style you choose will suit the genre. If this project gets off the ground, I wanna see sample pics for sure.

[Teldurn]

Thanks Daedalus! It's been quite a while since I posted that, but your reply gives me the perfect opportunity for a refresher course in updates so far.

That's a lot of news! We're any more videos made? I recognize that tower, so I for one was happy to see the end of Conquering Despair running.

No other videos were made aside from what is on my Youtube channel. I need to have some more made for playtesting and to use as screenshots for the Kickstarter page. And you'll notice the tower, as it was made by Heroic Maps, whom it's no secret I am a huge fanboy of.

That's awesome you got together at a real table to play--I once played in an HQ event at Gen Con as well. Those map tiles look expensive to print. Still--so worth it to have them for a premier event that everyone can admire. It appears you went with tile/chits instead of figures. Is this the plan for HQ Prime off-line?

Or perhaps I should ask, are Hero and monster chits the standard for Broadsword? (Love that name.)

Yes, the maps are not cheap to print. Thankfully, I have a connection for a print house through my work where I was able to get a friends & family discount on the printing. And even still, it would be prohibitively expensive to print all of them in the Quest Book. But it was worth every penny to have dozens (dozens!) of people stopping by to admire it. It helped that the convention put the public gaming tables in a hallway where it was sure to be seen.

My plan as of right now is to keep everything as tokens/chits, no figures. I don't want to have to deal with shipping anything to anyone. The whole game will be delivered digitally through DriveThruRPG, and DriveThruCards for people who want to have their cards in a physical form. Files in the digital package will have one version specifically set for online use at 72DPI and another version specifically for print at 300DPI. It's a lot of file duplication, but that's okay.

I am considering splitting them into separate packages and offering them that way, but I haven't made up my mind yet - there are pros and cons to think about.

I'm also going to be conducting a Kickstarter campaign to pay for the artists that will be used in the Rulebook. With that said, I've already priced out some cool looking dice that I am keeping on the back burner in the optimistic case where the campaign starts to reach stretch goal territory, I'd be willing to include a full set of dice as an add-on item. A full set would be 6d6 custom pictographic Combat Dice and 2d6 Movement dice in a different color.

Until now I haven't heard of an LLC company, but it sounds brilliant. At BGG I've read a doomsayer discouraging a potential game maker by claiming expensive (choking) liability insurance was necessary for any game that contained components. I'm glad to read you are pursuing a more practical strategy.

I'll be speaking with my tax attorney about if an LLC (limited liability company) would be the best way to go, or if I should go fully incorporated. Truthfully, the only reason I'm pursuing this route is to protect my ass in case Games Workshop or even Big Daddy Hasbro comes sniffing around and tries to claim copyright infringement on behalf of Milton Bradley.

As I have said before, in its current form, Broadsword hardly resembles HeroQuest in any way. But it's better to be safe than sorry.

Wow, Gary Chalk art would be great! I only wonder if he would be too expensive--hopefully not. If you go with another artist on the other hand, I'm sure the style you choose will suit the genre. If this project gets off the ground, I wanna see sample pics for sure.

As you suspected, getting new art from Gary was going to be prohibitively expensive. Like, when I combine it with the other artists' fees, my Kickstarter projections was heading into the stratosphere - figures where I have difficulty imagining the campaign would be able to succeed at all.

So what I've decided to do instead is license pieces of his existing work from HeroQuest and Lone Wolf to reuse in Broadsword. It's not as sexy of an option as it would have been if I were to get new Gary Chalk art. But on the other hand, his name is still in the artist's credits and some of his art will still end up in the game! I've also got 3 other artists on tap who will also be providing new art all around, including plenty of color card backs and color covers for the Rulebook and Quest Book.

The game is currently completed and written out sans art. As I have posted here frequently in the past, I've been playtesting it for the last several years under the guise of HeroQuest Prime. And all the changes and improvements noted during that time have been incorporated into Broadsword. But it itself has not been playtested yet. It will be, soon.

And finally, as to your point of seeing sample pics: The best way to do that would be to back the Kickstarter campaign once it goes live - it is still several months away from that. And I will DEFINITELY be posting here when that happens - All you guys here have been an inspiration. I will do my best to provide sneak peeks into some of the art as it comes in.

[Goblin-King]

How exciting. I hope Broadsword becomes a success - though you are up against hard competition.

As for GW/Hasbro, remember that rules can't be copyrighted. So if all assets are new you are in the clear.
As for licensing Gary Chalk art; I think it would be a bad decision to use the same assets that were specifically used in HQ. That would begin to smell like infringing on the copyrighted *expression* of HQ.

I'm particularly interested in the Gary Chalk art... How much did he charge for new art?

[Teldurn]

(snip)
I'm particularly interested in the Gary Chalk art... How much did he charge for new art?

70 euros for each B&W image .... there are over 200 cards that would need art if I wanted to have them ALL be new images.
150 euros for each color card back .... there are 22 decks.

[Goblin-King]

Interesting. I can see how that might be a bit over your budget - sadly!
I don't think he is insanely overpriced in his own right though. Him being a skilled professional and a known name.
Heck *I've* sold A4 B/W drawings for slightly less than €70 so I think it's pretty reasonable. But of course there's a difference between needing a single/few drawings and buying over 200!
But there's no easy way around art. You can't mass produce it. Every single piece is an artist spending several hours (for a quality piece of course).

I do hope you eventually upgrade the logo. That flat-colored cartoon sword just won't do in my humble opinion.

[Daedalus]

Do you plan to include Conquering Despair as a Quest Book with Broadsword, as the cover implies? If so, do the maps need to be purchased and downloaded from Heroic Maps, or will you provide them through licensing?

[Teldurn]

Interesting. I can see how that might be a bit over your budget - sadly!
I don't think he is insanely overpriced in his own right though. Him being a skilled professional and a known name.
Heck *I've* sold A4 B/W drawings for slightly less than €70 so I think it's pretty reasonable. But of course there's a difference between needing a single/few drawings and buying over 200!
But there's no easy way around art. You can't mass produce it. Every single piece is an artist spending several hours (for a quality piece of course).

And that's why I decided a reuse license was the way to go.

I do hope you eventually upgrade the logo. That flat-colored cartoon sword just won't do in my humble opinion.

I felt it evokes that classic feel of a simpler time when it was obvious who was the good guy and who the bad. I could add some shade to the flat yellow of the guard and pommel, I suppose that wouldn't hurt. But I don't wish to make it any more complex. I'm not looking for a grimdark feel. Plus keep in mind that the logo needs to be able to be recognizable in both black and white as well as in a much smaller size.

Do you plan to include Conquering Despair as a Quest Book with Broadsword, as the cover implies? If so, do the maps need to be purchased and downloaded from Heroic Maps, or will you provide them through licensing?

Yes. Conquering Despair will be included, but the map tiles will not. The one exception is the custom puzzle dungeon, which will be included in the package.

The reasoning is twofold. First, it would be technically complicated to set up, from what I understand after speaking with Joe & Sarah (the Heroic Maps folks). Second, I figure it's like using maps in a DnD module. The book will show you a beautiful color map and all but on the table, the GM is drawing it out on a gridded mat.

Those people that really want the full experience can patronize Heroic Maps themselves.

However, to this end, I have already arranged to have them bundle a "Broadsword bundle" of maps to include all the map sets that the Quest Book uses. This should make it simpler, at least.

[Daedalus]

I do hope you eventually upgrade the logo. That flat-colored cartoon sword just won't do in my humble opinion.

I felt it evokes that classic feel of a simpler time when it was obvious who was the good guy and who the bad. I could add some shade to the flat yellow of the guard and pommel, I suppose that wouldn't hurt. But I don't wish to make it any more complex. I'm not looking for a grimdark feel. Plus keep in mind that the logo needs to be able to be recognizable in both black and white as well as in a much smaller size.

Shading sounds like a good idea. While you're a it, I'd suggest enlarging the hilt, handle and pommel to bring it in to the proportions of a true broadsword. Perhaps thicken the hilt, as well. To help compensate for the added length, crowd the hilt over the 'B' a bit.

[Teldurn]

Shading sounds like a good idea. While you're a it, I'd suggest enlarging the hilt, handle and pommel to bring it in to the proportions of a true broadsword. Perhaps thicken the hilt, as well. To help compensate for the added length, crowd the hilt over the 'B' a bit.

I might also end up changing the shape of the hilt to mimic the spine of the B. I'll tinker around with it when I get some time and see how it looks.