One of the projects I’m working on right now is making props and handouts for my recently purchased copy of Chaosium’s Horror on the Orient Express campaign for Call of Cthulhu.

I started with a simple print out of the route map. Decided to experiment a bit to try and produce some different effects I can use for other handouts and props. The end result – or close to it anyway – is a nicely aged map that has a heavier/coated feel to it. Nicer maps designed to hold up the elements have a coated/leathery feel to them, and I wanted to try and replicate that.

A couple of important things to note:

The original file includes some faint halos around most text that looks a little like a bleed.
I intentionally tried to screw this up at a few stages. That way I know how much wiggle room I have to play around with the process – plus I wanted to test how well the ink in my new printer holds up to the process.
I seriously doubt this will work with just any inkjet printer and ink. There is a LOT of variety in inkjet inks. So if you try this, your results could vary quite a bit.
Be sure to click each image to see the higher-res photo.

Printing

I printed the map on my new Epson Workforce WF-7820 printer. This uses a pigment-based ink. A big goal of this was to see how well this ink resists bleeding when exposed to water, as a common way of artificially aging paper involves water. It did not disappoint.

I printed the map on a single 11×17 sheet of 67-lb cardstock that has a vellum finish.

Aging

Ideally, you would let the print sit overnight to ensure it’s completely dry and minimize any possible bleeding. I intentionally took the printed page directly from the printer to soak and age it.

I placed the printed map on a baking sheet and soaked it in coffee. I looked carefully for any signs of bleeding ink. At worst, there was a very, VERY SLIGHT bleeding around black text. Since the original file includes some faint coloring around a lot of the text, it’s hard to tell if there was actual bleed. If so, it was just a faint bleed of black into the surrounding tissue, but it in no way impacted the crisp edges of the text. Again, I wouldn’t expect this result with any inkjet printer, but it seems this pigment-based ink holds up very well to water.

Then the map goes in the oven for 4-5 minutes at 225°. Flipped the map over for another 4-5 minutes. I placed it directly on the sheet, which evidently had some residual cooking spray on it. This discolored a couple of areas on the back. Simple fix is to always place the paper on a piece of parchment paper.

Waxing

This is where I was going completely experimental to try and get the coated/leathery feel. Basically, I’m using a wax designed to wax and waterproof fabric. In this case, it’s a product called Otter Wax, and it comes in a bar.

Straight out of the oven, I placed the still warm map on the counter and rubbed the bar back and forth over the surface. Again, this didn’t affect the printed details at all. As it’s applied, it adds a subtle, waxy sheen to the surface that slightly brings out the color. Flipped the map and applied wax to the back.

Supposed to let waxed fabric cure in a warm environment for 24 hours, so I initially left the map out overnight. The next day it still had a tacky, wax-like feel to it. Decided to put it in the oven (after I aged some paper for another project) for another 3 minutes. This finished the wax curing / absorbing into the paper. No more wax feel to the surface, and slightly heavier than the base cardstock. I applied a second coat of wax the same way, and put it in the oven again. You definitely feel the wax when you apply it, but coming out of the oven that slight stickiness is gone.

End Result

The aging process always makes the paper wavy and wrinkled, so after waxing the first time (and again after waxing the next day) I pressed the map under weight to flatten it out a bit. Then I folded the map and pressed it again.

The final map is definitely heavier than the regular cardstock, and it has a texture and feel very close to what I was going for. I might try another application of wax or two, just to see if it makes a difference. The waxing also enhances the aged look of the coffee-died paper. It adds a subtly mottled appearance to the paper that is very reminiscent of natural parchment.

What is Sector F6?

Sector F6 is an ongoing project to develop a scalable tabletop gaming system that encompasses elements of both roleplaying and strategy games.

The initial idea for this project stems from the ongoing development of the Proteus tabletop roleplaying game as well as a long-time interest in roleplaying games and love of board games.

The Goal

Create a tabletop gaming system that:

Supports tabletop strategy gaming (along the lines of the 4X, city-building, and wargaming genres).
Supports tabletop roleplaying of multiple genres (including sci-fi, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and horror).
Uses strategic elements to enhance roleplaying campaigns and roleplaying elements to breath life and flexibility into the strategy game.
Enables players to seamlessly shift back and forth between both styles of play.
Enables players to shift focus on the aspects of gameplay they find most interesting and to shift that focus as desired throughout the course of the game.
Is customizeable and can be tailored to a wide variety of settings.

Objectives

The final system should utilize a unified system of basic mechanics for both the strategy and roleplaying modes of gameplay.
Events taking place while roleplaying should be capable of impacting the strategy game in a meaningful way, while events in the strategy game should impact roleplaying.
Roleplaying events and actions should NOT completely overpower the mechanics of the strategy game, but should facilitate actions that might not otherwise be possible or likely to succeed.
Events in the strategy game should NOT completely override the roleplaying experience, and players should have the opportunity to roleplay how events impact characters.
The system should allow for long and complex games while still supporting games that are smaller in scope or take place in a defined period of time.
The basics of the system should require a minimum of rules-referencing (e.g. looking up information in tables, etc.), and record-keeping should be kept to a reasonable level.
The system can be expanded and/or detailed to customize it for a specific setting or genre.
The system may also be used as a bridge to combine two or more games that exist within the same setting.

Styles of Games and Gameplay

Pure Roleplaying: The game acts solely as a tabletop roleplaying game with no strategic elements and only minimal concern for character activities between sessions/adventures.
Pure Strategy: The game acts solely as a tabletop strategy game with no player characters and limited use of important personalities/NPCs. The specific game style can vary and may include types such as civilization, exploration, and wargames.
Campaign: Emphasis is placed on the roleplaying game, with the strategy elements used in a support role as a broad and flexible campaign system.
Adventure Strategy: Emphasis is placed on the strategy game, and NPCs are used to flesh out and enhance the game world and influence key events. (Needs a better name.)
Hybrid (AKA Epic Storytelling): The game maximizes the use of roleplaying and strategy elements to build a game world full of characters and stories that exist against a rich backdrop of events and people.

Anticipated Features

The primary drivers of gameplay will likely be resource management, conflict resolution, and development over time.
Players will be able to focus on different aspects of gameplay by adjusting the scope of the game. Over the course of the game, players can adjust focus multiple times to enable individual characters or groups of varying sizes to take center stage.
The system will be scalable and able to incorporate:
Groups of characters (PC & NPC): Ranging from a small party to a collection of military units or an entire civilization.
Locations and territories: Ranging from single buildings to cities, planets, or entire regions of interstellar space.
Varying units of time: Ranging from seconds to days, weeks, months, years, etc.
Events in gameplay can include both random events like weather, natural disasters, or social movements as well as player-driven events that take place over time, such as military battles and scientific discoveries.
The system will incorporate mechanics so that gameplay at one level can affect gameplay at other levels. For example, success in a conflict at one level could result in an advantage or disadvantage in a conflict at another level. These advantages/disadvantages could be temporary or long-term.
The system will likely utilize only six-sided dice (d6), or more likely Fate dice. This will make the system more accessible.

Types of Conflict

The general types of conflict expected to be included in most games are:
Physical: Conflict revolving around the danger of physical damage and injury to characters, objects, and locations.
Psychological: Conflict focusing on the mental state of characters, their beliefs, and the psychological impact of events on both PCs and NPCs.
Social: Conflict concerned with the perception of characters and groups by others, including reputation, social standing, and likely reactions. These conflicts focus less on direct threats to the well-being of characters and organizations and more on some of the indirect factors that can nevertheless have a major impact over time.
Economic: Conflict involving the availability of resources and the resulting power to influence the game world. This is usually more relevant in games that incorporate at least some strategic elements, but can also involve character gear and possessions.

The Meaning Behind the Name

The choice of name for this project is actually based on many of the intended/anticipated features of the system.
S: Scalable, Strategic, Social
E: Events, Economic
C: Conflict, Characters, Customizable
T: Time
O: Open, Organizations
R: Resource Management
F: Focus, Framework
6: Six-sided Dice

base113 Games

Who you are is but a shadow of what you can become…

Tag: campaign

Experimental Map Handout – Printing and Aging