
Keith Tracton
Owner, Vizor Publishing
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Theater. Back in the day!
Blue, no Green (Aaaaaaah!)
ARMOR by John Steakley (Ants! Ants ! ANTS!)
Kelly's Heroes: "Drinkin' some wine, eatin' some cheese, catchin' some rays.")
Oh there's a bunch of them, some even not Shakespearean… :-)
But one of my favorites is from Kelly's Heroes:
Sarge: "Mulligan?! On time? On time and on target? And he ain't never been that yet!"
Kelly: "First time for everything…"
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Why Vizor Publishing?
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Well having been a gamer for lo these 33 years, 'round about year 18 I had
the idea of starting a mail order game company. But that was complicated back then,
so I decided against it. With the advent of the internet and EBay it became
easier, at least l thought so. So back in 2000 I started my little game/retail
company called Vizor Publishing ('vizor' from some obscure line in Romeo &
Juliet, my theater background gave me a taste for Shakespeare, well maybe it just
appeals to my taste for the obscure…). Nowadays I also call the company
'VizPub' for short, its just easier sometimes…I was young… :-)
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Mostly I have been retailing games to my friends in the area, at my game club and new friends found on the
internet in general and on EBay in particular.
Since 1976 I have been designing wargames, hoping to publish them in hardcopy (thus Publishing is in the name) but
not polishing or marketing them to anybody but my friends, and most often not even polishing them. That has changed.
Once I discovered Dale Larsen's wonderful PBeM tool Cyberboard (thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks Dale!) I realized I
could prototype those games without taking up table space, space ultimately claimed by kids, wife and/or rampant laundry
loads for folding.
GAME DESIGN -
TACTICAL NOTES & DIRTY TRICKS, The 'VIZPUB' WAY
And now it is 2006 and all the projects I have been tinkering with since 1985 are trying to come to fruition at
the same time. in 1985 I ran my first double-blind referred operational game, a game of the Antietam Campaign of the
American Civil War. I called the system Yankee Corps/Rebel Division in honor of the troop unit scale. The system turned
out to be the pre-cursor to the shock, shot and shell system refined into The Ridge: Waterloo and Gettysburg: Fight of
July. And my friends - the players - exclaimed in that way friends do which make us all give it another go six months
later, and six months after that, and continuously refine the design down to what we really wanted. And still want, I
hope. :-D
Shot and Shell was fine, but I have always had very eclectic wargaming tastes, everything from ancients to
shot'n'shell to naval to air warfare, modern wars up to alternate histories (which any historical wargame really is
anyways, an attempt at alternate history "What would YOU do at MIDWAY?") and of course science fiction conflict
simulations. One of my favorite games of all time is still the original 1977 Avalon Hill Starship Troopers, once I
figured out how to play the Bugs. :-)
GAME DESIGN: SPACE COMBAT IS 3D, I think…
My Friend Chris Mark came up with the phrase
Firepower Pass to indicate a tactic of
one of his spacefaring races that he invented: the vertical envelopment in space of an enemy squadron by your own
squadron of fast Dreadnoughts. I wanted a space combat miniatures game where you could GRAPHICALLY display 3D
movement/range, to allow for vertical envelopment without having to do scary math, and yet still be easy to USE. Similar
to the intent of the movement system of Attack Vector Tactical and Saganami Island Tactical Simulator by
Adastra Games, but one level higher in scale, Firepower Pass uses groups of ships
instead of moving individual ships. BTW boy am I excited those two AdAstra titles came out! Thanks Ken for paving the
way to 3D!
Anyways, I managed to solve the graphical 3D problem in a simple fashion, appropriately with input from a great
Napoleonic naval miniatures game
Fire As She Bears 2 made with care by a
great guy named Phil Fry whose design precepts correspond a lot with my own. His ideas about octagonal tiles regulating
movement of the miniatures added to my 3D ideas and graphical math notes turned out to be the missing element I needed
to simplify the math of movement in 3D - albeit in a Space Opera style rather than a hard-science style like Ken
Burnside's AdAstra games, but still with a real feel for me. "Real feel" is important to actor-gamers like me, and in my
experience with general gamers its important to them as well. How you get that real feel is simply a matter of personal
taste, i.e the game you choose that day.
Firepower pass IMHO plays fast and more importantly there is always something going on besides just movement
(maneuver) so both (or whatever number) of players are always involved, an important thing when 10 or 20 ships a side
are involved. Pace is everything, because for me, and to steal a phrase from Paranoia the Roleplaying game, Be boring
and you are dead.
Fortunately for me (big brow wipe!) from the very first move of the very first play-test, when game-systems were
much more awkward than the final version coming into final development, play-testers immediately began to think
TACTICALLY, i.e. WHERE is my squadron, where do I want to be, how close is the enemy and can I get to the weapon range I
want, etc, without being bogged down in HOW that was going to happen. The 3D movement concept seemed to work. They did
not have to worry about flying the spacecraft - the crews do that, and therefore there is less player control on that
level - the emphasis for players is on COMMANDING the squadron or subunits thereof. But when firing erupted as it
usually did, and quickly, players immediately became immersed in FIGHTING their ships, launching escort strikes, LAC
strikes, battery registration and fire, defending against missiles especially, using simple rules for multiple layers of
point defense, etc. The tactical elements that everybody seemed to enjoy immensely are a part of the squadron level, and
Firepower pass seems to have that.
I am quite happy with the result of all the testing, and my best testimonial is that my 10-yr old son who helped
with playtesting (diligently I might add, I am very proud of him!) LOVES playing it and asks many a weekend to play. :-)
Sci-fi combat games need to be set in sci-fi universes to feel real, and as I mentioned the latter is essential
for me in a design. I was going to base the universe of Firepower Pass on one invented and documented by my friend Chris
Mark, but he has been truly busy and alas has been unable to do the immense job of updating all his considerable volume
of textual and artistic material and using his artistic talents to make 3D versions of his fantastic 2D ship designs.
Ultimately if he has the time I hope to add his material in as a supplement. In the meantime I will be attempting to
build a space-faring culture - the Procyonese Concordat (PRO-Cs or "Proks") - to oppose the Corporatocracy of the Terran
Confederation.
In my theater training we were taught that it is a matter of personal preference as to whether to build a
character from the inside first, i.e. determine the character's emotions; or outside first, i.e. determine physical
characteristics. In this case I will be designing the ships first, the outside if you will, since I have values already,
and the cultures will match that, rather than having the ships come out of the cultures. As long as they connect
believably it should work, I hope!
-Keith 4/22/06