Free Trader

"Free Trader" is a solitaire game with a theme of trading between planets trying to make the first four payments on your recently bought space ship.

Inspired by the "Traveller" RPG and the 80s computer game "Elite" you will explore the planets of the galaxy looking for and making the most of trading opportunities.

But the void between the planets is not safe. You'll find it inhabited by Pirates willing to attack you and take your burnt out spaceship as salvage. So you'll need to upgrade your ships defences while struggeling to meet the payments.

With the huge cost of defenses and ship upgrades will you be tempted to risk carrying illegal cargos? If you risk it, you'll have to watch out for the Interstella Police who patrol the unfriendly space above the skies of many planets.

Free Trader, is free! Download it by selecting one of the versions and art sets shown below. However if you want to encourage further free releases please consider purchasing the game by following the LuLu link at the bottom of the page. There is no difference between the Basic Set here and the one on LuLu.

Listen to an Audio Trailer for the game.

Version	Basic Set	Alternate Art set by TGov	Alternate Art set by Linael
Version 2 : This version is slightly harder than version 1.		Planets, Cards and Playmat	Planet Cards & Event Cards ( You'll also need to download the basic set so you can print the Playmat.)
Version 1 : This version is slightly easier than version 2		Complete Game	Planet Cards & Event Cards ( You'll also need to download the basic set so you can print the Playmat.)

 This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Support the game by purchasing a copy at LuLu.



Here's a how to play video:




Check out the games page at BoardGameGeek where people have developed multiple variants of the game too.

Conquer the Galaxy

Conquer the Galaxy is a card driven/action point  wargame/boardgame for two players, where each tries to win control of the Galaxy using Armies, Fleets, Maneuver and Politics.

It's Red vs Blue on a Galactic scale, with multiple ways to win in knife edge.victories. Balance your political prowess with military might to take over, control and dominate the Galaxy.

Purchase the game from LuLu

Sink the Bismarck

The German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The lead ship of her class and named after the 19th century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck displaced more than 50,000 tons fully loaded and was the largest warship then commissioned. Her chief claim to fame came from the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941 during which the battlecruiser HMS Hood, flagship of the Home Fleet and pride of the Royal Navy, was sunk within several minutes. In response, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the order to "Sink the Bismarck", spurring a relentless pursuit by the Royal Navy.

Two days later, with safer waters almost in reach, Fleet Air Arm aircraft torpedoed Bismarck and jammed her rudder, allowing heavy British units to catch up with her. In the ensuing battle on the morning of 27 May 1941, Bismarck was heavily attacked for nearly three hours before sinking.

The Boardgame

In this board game you become the controller of the Anti Aircraft batteries on board the Bismarck, desperately attempting to keep the attacking British Swordfish torpedo planes at bay.

This is a solitaire game and after printing out the game all you need to supply are four standard dice and a pencil! It's FREE, why not give it a try?

The game is written up in a PDF and stored on my Sky Drive, why not download it?

Dog Races

Dog Races is an easy to play family friendly card game. Players compete to score the most points on a series of Dog Races and play cards to help their selected dog and win and other cards to slow down their opponents dogs.

This game is free to download from my Sky Drive, just to the right.

If you want to support the designer of this game, please consider purchasing a copy of the game from LuLu. The game is exactly the same over there but a purchase through them does me more good than a simple donation. Thankyou. :)

Cthulhu Boardgame

Inspired by the stark and dark horror of the Cthulhu Mythos I put together this little boardgame that has a Cthulhu Mythosy feel.

The game is written into a simple to print PDF that you can get from my Sky Drive.

Stronghold type game playtest kit

Introduction

I'm a fan of the computer game "Stronghold". Inspired by that game I wanted to create a board game that could capture that games spirit while combining it with the fun social aspects of a board game.

This Kit

This page presents the playtest kit for my first attempt at the game. Let me make this clear, THIS IS NOT A FINISHED GAME. This is a playtest kit. It's for people to take and print out just so they can try out the rules and machanics therein. To this end the rules in the kits are in a draft format and all printable items use a minimum of color, additionally there is no decent artwork only simple line drawings in a representative style.

Feedback

By placing this file on the internet I hope to encourage people with a similar interest in the game to download, print and try out the game. I have included an email address in the playtest kit file, please let me know what you think of the way the game works ( or doesn't! )

This kit is written into a PDF file which is stored on my Sky Drive

Scenario - Memoir '44 - Defence of Calais

This is a scenario for the excellent Days of Wonder boardgame Memoir 44.

What has become known as the "Dunkirk campaign" was not merely a retreat and defence at Dunkirk. It was in fact a series of defences of coastal ports. One of the important defensive actions was that in Calais. Many British troops were evacuated from the docks while other staunch defenders both British and French held back the Axis Forces. 

the scenario is written up in a PDF and stored on my Sky Drive

Scenario - Valor & Victory - Messenger Ambush

This is a scenario for the excellent and free war game Valor and Victory.

A German patrol is returning to the village with information that must be transmitted to Battalion HQ, the patrol must reach the radio set up in the village. Little do the Germans realise, that a U.S. Ambush has been set up within the perimeter of the village itself. This is a very small scenario for learning puposes.

The scenario is written up as a PDF and stored onmy Sky Drive

Scenario - Memoir '44 - Battle of the Five Armies

This is a scenario for the excellent Days of Wonder boardgame Memoir 44.

Although Memoir 44 is a serious game about combat during WWII, I decided to merge fantasy and history in this scenario.

The Battle of the Five Armies is the large Battle fought at the end of the fantasy book "The Hobbit" written J.R.R. Tolkien. This Memoir '44 scenario pays honour to that novel by presenting a 5 medal battle based on the terrain described in the book.

The scenario is written up as a PDF and stored on my Sky Drive

Scenario - Valor & Victory - Recon Patrol

This is a scenario for the excellent and free war game Valor and Victory.

A British reconnaissance force advances up a road to determine if it would be suitable for a quick advance by the main force. The Germans are dug in up ahead and the reconnaissance must determine if it should be bypassed or pushed through. 

The scenario is written up in a PDF and stored on my Sky Drive.

Scenario - Valor & Victory - Take the Bridge

This is a scenario for the excellent and free war game Valor and Victory.

A small German garrison well in the rear of front lines is stationed at the bridge on the canal charged with protecting it. The officer in charge has left a very light guard in the field fortifications on either side of the bridge while the majority of the force sleep in the nearby dwellings.

This scenario is written up as a PDF and stored on my Sky Drive.

Scenario - Valor & Victory - Leading Edge

This is a scenario for the excellent and free war game Valor and Victory.

The British have planned a raid against the German held Belgium coast. “The first wave will approach the beach in dingies, assault up the beach and take control of the beach defences. Subsequent waves will advance through the first wave who will remain in position to protect the main forces line of communication.”

The scenario is written up in a PDF file and stored on my Sky Drive

Solo Dungeon Bash

This game is for anyone who is on their own and fancying a Dungeon Bash. All you need are these rules, a piece of paper ( preferably of the graph variety ), a pen and a bunch of six sided dice.

The dungeon is made up of a grid of squares, 9 squares wide and 10 rows deep.  You'll start at the entrance square and begin investigating the rooms finding treasure or monsters

If you're clever and brave enough ( and maybe just a bit lucky too ) you'll get to the end space beyond level 10 and defeat the big bad!

I've put a PDF containing the game onto my Sky Drive and you can download it from there.

24th Nov 2010 Update

I've been sent this cool DOS-like Java implementation of Solo Dungeon Bash by " D'Aluisio-Guerrieri Josh" which he put together while learning Java. It reminds me of the old fashioned text adventures which were all we had back in the late 80's. I've played it through a couple of times and got a kick out it!

Disclaimer : I didn't write this software so can't tell you how it'll behave.

Download from the 'ole Skydrive


7th jun 2011 Update

Wow! Another computer version has been created, this one you can play in your browser.

Disclaimer : I didn't write this software so can't tell you how it'll behave.

100 Call of Cthulhu Characters

Here are 100 characters for you to pick from. You might think that there are a lot of unexpected weapon related skills. I could rationalise that, but I wont. That's for you to do when you create a character background. My players have taken some of these characters and simply shunted unwanted weapon skills onto other hobbies. It's quick and simple to do so. ( e.g. SMG 20% moved to Fishing 20% )

Here's a sample :

Jacob Franko : Body Guard
STR:10 CON:5 DEX:11 SIZ:14 INT:12 POW:6 APP:11 EDU:11 SAN:30
Idea:60 Knowledge:55 Luck:30 Magic Points:6 Hit Points:9 Damage Bonus:+0
Occupation Skills ; Fist:75 Grapple:50 Disguise:6 Hand Gun:45 Spot Hidden:45 Dodge:52 Ride:25 Drive Auto:35
Hobby Skills ; Archaeology:6 Astronomy:6 Bargain:10 Biology:16 Chemistry:6 Craft:10 Credit Rating:20 Electrical Repair:15 Hide:15 Library Use:10 Locksmith:6 Operate Hvy Mch.:6 Own Language:60 Persuade:20 Physics:11 Pilot:6 Psychology:10 Throw:30 Track:15 SMG:20 Italian:6

The rest of the 100 are in a PDF file which I've stored on my One Drive

NPC Character Names

This page provides a tool that allows you to generate a quick list of Character or NPC names for any Role Playing Game.

Keepers/DMs may find this useful for generating NPC's.

This tool uses random choices, so every time you click on the "Generate" button you will get a differn't set of results. If you dont like the first result then click the button again.

Cthulhu and the River of Doubt

What have we here? This book is designed for the Role Player with a historic Horror bent, specifically for “Call of Cthulhu” but can be read anyone.

The bulk of the book is made up of the entire text of “Through the Brazilian Wilderness” written by President Theodore Roosevelt. His writing describes a journey taken by himself and acquaintances in 1913, through the steamy jungles of Brazil travelling down the uncharted River of Doubt. This was no pleasure cruise. This journey was an exploring adventure of toil, fear, danger and murder. The jungle that surrounded them for months contained dangerous animals and threatening indigenous people, the water even held man eating fish.

Footnotes appear throughout detailing elements and suggestions for turning this epic journey into a Role Playing campaign. An appendix at the end suggests some character profiles for the main protagonists.

The Roosevelt-Rondon expedition is the perfect historical source for a role playing campaign.
Buy / Preview the book at Lulu.com as PDF or Perfect-Bound Book.
Kindle version available at Amazon

Pick-a-Phobia-o-matic

The classic role playing game "Call of Cthulhu" often has reason for its characters to insane to one degree or another, and these insanities are expressed as phobias. Here we present an automatic random generator for selecting phobias for your insane characters. Click the button below to select a phobia.

When you've picked your madness, why not take a look at the other roleplaying features here.

The phobias presented in this list are a subset of the full list found at PhobiaList.com, please vistit that site to see the full list.

Music to Role Play to...

If your like me you like a to have music playing in the background while roleplaying. This music should be able to set the mood for your game and at the same time not be so distracting that it impacts on your game play.
When I'm looking for Roleplay music I want "mood", I want "setting", I want "feel".

Some of this music is upbeat some of it dark and moody, some of it hardly music at all as it merges into ambient setting pieces.I listen to a lot of the free and legal music I find on the internet and select tracks that will fit my requirements for roleplaying mood music.

Below is a starting list for you of some particularly good tracks that I've found. Remember I'm only listing music that is both Free and Legal for you to download. The music can be used and copied by you for your private use. Check the web pages linked to for specific useage rules.
I plan to keep adding to this list as I find more tracks and albums, so check in every month or so.

Alba 1 by So Simple

Tension superficial A minimilistic electronic tune combined with beat and noise
Beam A sad minimal tune combined with occasional drum beats
Urgent star (Supernova)An interseting almost rain like melody with a beat, a slow tune.
There are more tracks on this album that I hope to review soon.

Ambient Collective: Dark

Part 1 A mood piece, babeling alien voices, overtures, stalking chords threatening, then a long journey
Part 2 A mood piece, echos. Machine noise in the distance. A voice just out of hearing?
Part 3 A mood piece, whines and mysterious knocks in a deep place, reverberations

AMBIENT\DARK AMBIENT by M1911A1

After Chernobil A mood piece, not so much music as inspiring and scene setting sound, as creepy as the name suggests.
AnxietyA mood piece, overtures, muffled speaking, piano tinkles, metal rending, excellent creepiness!
Proxima RS8000 A mood piece, deep base piping, a lament or an ode that asks questions, and turns into a heart pumping fear.
Shambels of eternityAn ambient noise experience, waves of tortured metal sounds moving from ear to ear, bird crys, squealing brakes in a tunnel.

Raga Jalfrezi by Zal Krishna

Raga Jalfrezi A great piece for sessions set in foreign lands. A definite indian feel to to it with tune thats way out and engaging all at once.

Fadeout by Sefiros

Re-Entry A great opening theme for a game. has a haunting see saw sound that builds to a rush at the end.
Dougan A beat that hints at breathing with a string melody that haunts the piece.
TitanOpens with a distorted sounds and builds in a beat, it makes a slow dance beat uncomfortable.

Music for Horror Movies by Ann Hell

You're Different and that's Bad A short piece that changes pace and mood, from an average beat track to an aspirational outro. Lyrics
The Survival Guide Hints of an ominous thing to come, and has a sci fi feel to it, a nice rhythm. Radio intercepts.
Crushed and Smashed Upbeat and dark. An unanswered phone and sub vocal lyrics combined with an "alarm" beat makes this track fairly intense.
Never Trust a Scarecrow A laid back, almost swing track that hints at explosions, and says "investigator on the prowl to me. Baby crying and upbeat later segment.
Whispering Walls A fast beat gives you the impression that this might go well with a chase. Occasional lyrics and screams.
The Man who slaughtered Baby J An almost upbeat track yet still dark, but with a hint of the B52's. Contains low audio level lyrics and a chainsaw.
Nightmare of Assymetry This is a fairly light, possibly humourus theme for a stalker.

1896 by Ann Hell

The Stars Inside A gothic feel with a rather nice rain effect.

Traveller Party - ready to play

If you're a fan of the Traveller RPG you may find this page of use. The following is a list of characters that can be used to form a party of adventurers.

Drake Qualland

Drake was drafted into the Navy at 18 and immediately found his feet. He stayed in for two terms gaining a commision during the first and a promotion during the second. Even though the military life suited him, the next prospected term did not. The powers that be, had advised him that during his next term he would be seconded to the Navy accademy, and the idea of teaching snotty kids was something he could not face.

Mustering out benefits : 50000cr, High Passage

STR : 8 DEX : 8 END : 6 INT : 7 EDU : 6 SOC : A

Sensors : 1 Language, Vargr : 2 Carousing : 2 Instruction : 1 Watercraft : 1 Vac Suit : 2 Grav craft : 1 Computer : 1 Equestrian : 1

Sike Rangerson

Sike was a troubled child he never fitted in with others. The high tech highly populated vacuum homeworld left him with no personal space. As soon as his mandatory schooling was complete he leapt into the Scout service, yearning for solitude and freedom. Unfortunately while out in the big dark he discovered he didn't really enjoy his own company, he needed people. After just a single term, he left the service

Mustering out benefits : Low Passage

STR : A DEX : 7 END : 7 INT : 7 EDU : 6 SOC : 4

Grav craft : 1 Recon : 1 Astrogation : 1 Gunnery : 1 Athletics : 1 Engineering : 1 Computer : 1

Rave Eeale

Rave was recruited by "the Agency" straight from school, picked up by the services scouts. Commissioned during his first term, the management saw that he would be progressing quickly up the promotion scale. Unfortunately, it was not to be. He had just established a ring of informants and started working them, when a gang of cut throats jumped him. He was seriously injured and ended up being discharged due to the time his injuries would take to heal.

Mustering out benefits : 2000cr, Forensics Kit

STR : 8 DEX : 9 END : B INT : 6 EDU : 6 SOC : 8

Grav craft : 1 Camouflage : 1 Vac suit : 1 Gunnery : 1 Law : 1 Admin : 1 Perception : 1 Streetwise : 1

Triander Colone

Triander was fortunate enough to be born into the house of Colone, an extremely rich and well placed family on a world of high political intrigue. As soon as Triander came of age he was immediately "called out" in a duel. The cause of the challenge was political not personal, and set the tone for Trianders adult years. At the age of 32 Triander had had-enough and decided to leave the home world and instead get away from intrigue and violence.

Mustering out benefits : 50000cr, T.A.S., Yacht

STR : 9 DEX : 6 END : 9 INT : 9 EDU : 7 SOC : B

Computer : 1 Grav craft : 1 Diplomacy : 1 Fast Talk : 1 Fencing : 5 Leadership : 1 Equestrian : 1 Instruction : 1 Blade : 1 Acting : 1 Language, Vargr : 1 Gambling : 1

Robot Warfare

I had a bunch of 3" plastic Robots that needed a framework of rules in order to have a BATTLE!( Yeah I wanted to play something simple and fun with No1. son.

Fortunately for me, I also own a couple of sets of Heroscape which gives me a bunch of plastic terrain hexes to play on, so all I needed was a set of rules. Scouring the net revealed many many sets of sci fi rules and of course there was also Battletech, not all of these were far too complex.

The end result was that I threw together my Robot Wars ruleset.  It's really simple and will make the hardened Grarnard cringe, but it worked great with my son and thats what I wanted.

I have stuffed the rules into a PDF file and stored this on my Sky Drive, thanks Microsoft!

WWII Ship Wargame Rules

A while ago during a boring time I thought up the idea of making wargame models out of some spare wood I had lying around.  The image on the left was the first I made.  made from 3/4" planking, some dowel and of course glue is a model of HMS Hood, a two foot long model.

Having made a model or two I switched into wargamer mode and started looking around for a set of rules suitable for playing with these big models on the back lawn.  I didn't find any, so ended up writing my own set.  In these rules the big guns can reach up to 20 feet!

Although I could manage the rules the statistics of the various ships was way beyond my research capabilities!  That was soon solved by Rich Satore who kindly allowed me to "rip off" his ship stats from his rules set Sea Krieg. The Sea Krieg rules are for table top play and are quite excellent.

However for my rules, I've put them into a PDF and stored them on my Sky Drive. Thanks Microsoft.

Vietnam Skirmish Rules

This is a set of wargame rules for playing a middling size skirmish set in the American/Vietnam war.  The rules were written for use with 20mm metal minis and have been used in that role a number of times.

As well as the figures and terrain, you will also need to supply some standard dice, a measuring stick, lots of tiddley winks and some crunched up balls of paper!

The rules feature the use of supressing fire which will pin all but the bravest of warriors. In game terms, supressing fire reduces the ability of the supressed to interfere with your plans.

Also included are some rules for handling vehicles and artillery fire, although these features are not expected be the focus of the game. In play each player will easily be able to handle 20-30 figures.

The rules are in a PDF file and stored on my Sky Drive, thanks Microsoft!

Brigade Commander

The inspiration and model for this rules set has come from two very fine existing published rules sets.

The first “De Bellis Antiquitatis“ is a simple yet wonderful quick-play focused mode that models warfare in the ancient world.

The second set “Chef de Battailon” is an exceedingly detailed set of Napoleonic rules with each commander controling a single battalion. In this set, the player is constantly faced by the nightmare of moving troops around terrain while under fire.

Both sets are excellent at what they do, but as the main designer of these rules I wanted the detail of “Chef” and the speed of “De Bellis”. Much play testing and tinkering has resulted in the set of rules you now hold.

The rules are written up in a PDF which is stored on my windows Sky Drive ( Thankyou Microsoft! )

Image Splitter

This is a simple little program for manipulating an image. It does just two things.

It resizes and image and allows you to cut it up into pieces ( separate image files ).

You specify how you want to scale the image either up or down, and by how much. Then you specify how big you want you each part of the cut up image to be.

I've used this for all kinds of things. For example, enlarging a photo, then splitting that large image into A4 size sections that are easy to print.

The game is written using Microsofts C# language using their free development platform "C# Express".

The file is stored on my Sky Drive (Thanks Microsoft! )

Damaris Blocks

Damaris Blocks is a very simple Puzzle Game, written to amuse my family. You have to try and clear blocks from the screen.

You can only clear a block if its made up of two or more squares. When you clear a block, those above drop down. The blocks also move to the right when columns are emptied.  Beware you dont end up with marooned blocks!

Bigger blocks score more points, single blocks left at the end cost you lives. It's not frantic and there is no time pressure.

The game is written using Microsofts C# language using their free development platform "C# Express".

The file is stored on my Sky Drive (Thanks Microsoft! )