Rage against the dying of the light!

These are the last days. Gaia is dying. The Apocalypse is here.

Will you fall defending her or die a cowards death? Will your pack live in legend as the ones who saved the world, or those who betrayed it?

Is today a good day to die?

Take control of a pack of Garou, savage werewolves, as they battle the forces of the Wyrm in defense of Mother Earth, Gaia.

Funny

August 19th, 2008 by Lord Kuato

I don’t really pay attention to local news. It’s mostly just bull crap, anyway. I read the blurbs and pick off what interests me, which is not much.

So it was a small surprise today when I was reading through the headlines and thought I saw my name there, I had to look twice…

Umbra Kato Wounded in Ambush.

Damn rebel leaders!!! Somebody give him a Mother’s Touch and play a Gang Beating!!! Umbra Kato will not go down easy!!!

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Remaking Rage 10: And then the rain came

August 15th, 2008 by Picks-at-Flies

As we move on from CCG Workshop, we want to remind you that we have not forgotten Rage. After the first two sets of Ahadi, our African block, we had a lot of cards which had fallen out of those sets for one reason or another. To keep things moving we put some of those into a small set called Rainfall (you can find this along with the rest of Ahadi).

Since there are only 9 cards, I can go into each card in a bit more depth than usual.

Death of Black Tooth

This is one of those themic cards that we like to include to give the block some shape. The Ahadi – a coalition of changing breeds - was created in order to take down the tyrant Black Tooth. Our block is set after Black Tooth has fallen. Since we are not producing a Black Tooth card (as such), this was our nod towards those people who wanted one. Those who know their stuff will notice that it mirrors the effect of Entrapment, one of the few good Quests produced by White Wolf. In case there aren’t any Bastet in other packs, we will be providing some additional prey which will qualify for the reward. Note that the card originally penalised you if you failed to kill (as Black Tooth reputedly took power from his enemies), but it was removed for simplicity.

Scavenger’s Quest

Sneak Attack has a lot to answer for. Without it, this card would have been much easier to balance. As it happens, although this Quest retains the original intent of the card submission, we had to both increase the reward and then restrict its usage. At its most powerful, Fenris used her already mighty Ajaba deck to cripple her victim, ended combat, then returned with one of her packmates to finish the job with a full hand and a Telling Blow. That is why you can now only slip in after another player’s combat. We ended up, however, with what we wanted – a playable quest that challenges Sneak Attack for a position in the right deck.

Prove Your Strength

This is the second of three aspect-themed Board Meetings that were due to be in War Council. One was dropped (we could not think of something really good for Defiler), and this one was pushed back for lack of art - twice. I was so keen for it to it to be released that I even attempted some art myself. Luckily, Fenris rejected it but just for laughs you can see it here:

PaF's art

As a counterpoint, we ended up with jaw-dropping art from Sandara – anyone think they know which of the combatants is winning? Theme-wise, it plays up the Wyrm’s self-destructive element, singling out their rivals so that they can be torn apart. In effect, members of the target pack must either win or escape combat, else die. In a Beast-of-War deck it is highly effective which makes up for their lack of other tricks.

Perfect Cover

There is not much to say about this card – it almost exactly as originally submitted, although it does have a few more users. In particular, we wanted a few cards for the animal breed of Ananasi (Arachnid) which are due out later in the block. Animal breeds of lesser shapechangers are hard to provide for, since any card specifically made for them is usable by so few creatures. This is why you will see a few of these breeds as additional users on some cards.

The card itself, while unexciting, does allow more decks to be based around specific Territories which would otherwise be vulnerable (and Caerns to a lesser extent). No longer are you restricted to the Moon Sisters Cult. Hereditary Castles and Hidden Lairs beware!

Primal Anger

Considering how many Metis Characters there are, they have remarkably few useful cards. This was a step towards changing that, at the same time being a perfect example of a Gnosis 1 Gift. It is very difficult to make Gnosis 1 Gifts, given that they have to be weaker than every other Gift, but did they really have to be as bad as Scent of Distinction?

Until recently Primal Anger reduced the user’s Health by 1, until it became clear that this produced more complications than were comfortable (how would it work, for instance, with Survivor?). Taking a leaf from, of all things, Mage’s Permadox, it is now itself a damage card.

Duck and Cover

This card was inevitable after the limited success of Instinctive Attack. It was delayed until we were confident we had the rules for Instinctive cards ironed out, and I think there will be more in the future. It is not complete immunity to stymies, but it does make stymies much more tactical than they used to be.

We have an awareness that producing more dodge cards only helps those annoying decks which pack nothing except defensive cards and escapes. I don’t think that not producing dodges is the way around that, and I am sure this is a point we will return to. Certainly, this is not a ‘better’ dodge than some already printed or released.

Whiplash

This is another card in our bid to give more options for Combat Actions. Go Dead Zone!

Okavango Mists

While I don’t generally encourage more use of Umbral Escape, the Wyrm has many ways to reduce the Gnosis of Gaia creatures and this was largely submitted as a counter to that. It also adds to the surprisingly short list of Spirit Victims.

Bastet Gossip Network

This is, in fact, part our nefarious plot to make Juntas more fun. Firstly, it gives Bastet a special Moot bonus. Secondly, it gives Hellcats a special Board Meeting bonus. These are really the same point, but also a conscious decision. One of the themes of War Council was to make Board Meetings work. That has been achieved, but we now want to take it them out of the niche of a couple of Characters and spread them among everyone else. You will see more cards sprinkled through Ahadi to do this.

Thirdly, the gossip network allows cross-faction voting. There are several cards which do this (e.g. Blood Diamond), but we wanted Bastet to be better at it. It also is noticeable as a side-effect: mostly it will be played as the largest continuous vote boost (outside the Silver Fangs) in Rage; this ability to mess across factions is just a bonus.

There special brand of uniqueness comes from both a power-level (multiples could be too strong) but also to represent the fickleness of this group. The idea that different packs would be vying to control them is very appealing, plus the way they can keep bugging you even if you don’t want them to. It is also a way to sneakily absorb small amounts of damage…

~Picks-at-Flies

While I hope the facts are correct, this article is inevitably written from my own perspective. I am sure you can cope.

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State of Rage Online

August 15th, 2008 by Picks-at-Flies

The death of CCG Workshop and the Gatling Engine had been remarked upon in various forums, but it has not been officially announced. (Due to hope, lack of information and a certain element of disbelief.) So this is it:

The gEngine is no more.

There is more information on the CCG Workshop forums (which are still up), but I will state the reason for its demise here. The creator and owner of the program, Bugladen, suffered an enforced degrading of lifestyle. As a result, when there was a serious problem with the server, he did not have the time or energy to find the right fix. It is unlikely to return to functional use any time in the foreseeable future.

Alternatives

There are three alternatives being looked at:

Arcanist CCG - http://vhati.spymac.com/ArcanistCCG/
- State: Owner is actively preparing Rage for release.
- Plus points:
  - The owner is very keen for his software to be used;
  - The software is very fast and easy to use;
  - It can handle multiple decks and two-sided cards.
- Negatives:
  - It can only handle two players (and this is not likely to change soon);
  - It has no lobbies – you have to connect directly to the other player’s computer;
  - It has no separate areas for hands/Hunting Grounds.
Lackey CCG – http://www.lackeyccg.com/
- State: we have a volunteer to set up Rage for Lackey.
- Plus Points:
  - Available on several platforms;
  - Has many of the features of the gEngine;
  - Has multiplayer play;
  - Allows for multiple decks if set up correctly;
  - Has a lobby.
- Negatives:
  - Somewhat sluggish (particularly on my suspect computer; worse when downloading new card images);
  - Not as easy to use as other options;
  - Multiplayer functionality needs improving;
  - No double-sided cards (requires Crinos forms to be kept in sideboard);
  - No fixed areas of play (but does have separate hands/decks etc).
Ludoholic – http://www.ludoholic.com/
- State: I am part way through coding, but it requires a lot more. Others have volunteered to help but need to send non-disclosure agreements to Bugladen (and for him to give access).
- Plus points:
  - Played through a web browser – completely multiplatform;
  - Fully automated;
  - Games are saved;
  - Games can be played out over many days;
  - You can be in multiple games at once;
  - Full multiplayer functionality.
- Negatives:
  - Full automation will make the games slow (because every possible action and response has to be allowed for) – they will almost have to be played over days, weeks or even months.
  - It is a bugger to code and will require more work from Bugladen (see above for reasons why this is difficult).

Summary

Through all my investigations, I have yet to find any program that comes close to the Gatling Engine in usability and customisation. The first two programs are fairly short on customisation, the latter has far too much (i.e. the coder has to think of everything). The best bet, I think, will be Lackey.

The loss of CCG Workshop hit Rage hard. While there are some people who play it in hard form, most players can only play online. Every time a player tries to use the engine and fails, that is another loss from the Rage community. It has also set back the releases of Ahadi, another key driver of the game, since we have not been able to do anything very much in the way of playtesting. With some luck, we will have online Rage again within a few months. Please be patient while we find new ways to play and remember to look again before the end of the year.

All the best,
Picks-at-Flies

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Rage: Apocalypse is Coming Back

July 26th, 2008 by Lord Kuato

Due to insistent public demand, what little public there is, at least, as well as the fact that I’ve been in a site building mood for the past few weeks (3 personal sites put together), I’ll be rebuilding Rage: Apocalypse.

*pause for applause*

Now, don’t expect this to be something that’s going to happen in a blink of an eye as I’m awfully busy right now. “How did you manage to build three other sites if you’re busy then,” you may ask. Well, they were pretty simple and straightforward.

To rebuild Rage: Apocalypse, we’re going to have to redo the whole card database, recode the rules and FAQ, tinker with anything else that’s available and adjust everything from an ancient version of WordPress.

You’ll notice the site is a mess right now, but assuming you’ve been here before, you’ve probably read what’s readable and worthy of interest already, anyway.

So this site is going to be trashier than ever before for a while. I don’t know what will work and what won’t but eventually, it will come back together. I ask Rage fans from all over the world, those of you that still remain, to keep an eye out on this site. Hell, it’s cost me some solid cash to keep it running this long, show a little gratitude. Visit once in a while.

With that, I’m off. It’s now running the latest version of WordPress and fucked up. But that will change soon enough.

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Sun and Rain

September 16th, 2007 by Picks-at-Flies

Remaking Rage 9: Sun and Rain

Welcome to Rainmakers! Less of a preview than a postview, I want to show you around the backwaters of the second set in Ahadi. If you hadn’t seen it yet, Rainmakers can be found here.

The Block

Before I explain the Rainmakers concept, I need to explain the Ahadi. While Rage, and indeed Werewolf, focussed largely on the Garou there existed on the outside many different changing breeds (most of whom also served Gaia). A long time ago, in prehistory, the Garou declared war on all other changing breeds â€“ killing many of them - and for some reason they did not particularly appreciate this. Ever since the changing breeds have been a bit .. unfriendly .. towards the Garou, and indeed to each other.

In more recent times there has been some move towards peace and reconciliation. In the Amazon, the Bastet and MokolÃ© came to a precarious understanding with the Garou there (including Golgol Fangs-First). Then in Africa, as the Ajaba (werehyenas) were being decimated by the Simba (werelion) pride led by Black-Tooth (not to be confused with Black Claw), one of them made a stand. Her story is detailed in the Players Guide to the Changing Breeds (a rare and thus expensive book printed shortly before Apocalypse), but in brief she made an alliance with North African Silent Striders, MokolÃ© and other Bastet. They defeated Black-Tooth, and with some heavy diplomacy the “Ahadi” survived beyond the fall of his pack.

This African block revolves around the Ahadi but also drifts off into other aspects of North Africa (including, of course, the Wyrmâ€™s agents there).

War Council

War Council set was, for the development team and playtesters, a warm-up. We had compiled a 400+ card database to begin and were introducing lots of new factions. While I had not started work on Revised at that point, there were still plenty of rules and design questions thrown up by some of the proposed cards and factions, as well as questions thrown up by the increasing number of online players. We wanted a set that did not throw up too many awkward questions and which would not be too hard on the playtesters.

From a thematic point of view it introduced many of the elements of Africa and some of the peripheral players. Cooperation and Talebearerâ€™s Quest link to the Ahadi; Spring of Visions and Scale of Maâ€™at give some of the Egyptian feel; while the Firearm theme (that extends into Rainmakers due to art issues) is sadly all too relevant to too many parts of Africa. The set also strengthened both Glass Walkers and Board Meetings which provided a strong link to the rest of the world. Finally we introduced many cards that foreshadow things to come â€“ Cooking for instance. For those without access to Rage Across Egypt, I will fill you in a lot, lot later in the block.

Rainmakers

What would a Remaking Rage article be without links? When we started Ahadi I knew nothing about the Ajaba apart from the small write-up in the 2nd edition Players Guide so the name of this set came from Fenris, which she explains here. You can also find more about the Ajaba at this fan site, although it is not necessarily what is in the printed books.

As Rage designers and developers, Rainmakers was very clearly the place for Ajaba, MokolÃ© and the odd Pentex Executive (for balance). We also included all those cards that we had wanted in War Council but had been left out due to space and art constraints. This was Chiaka, Pistol Whip and Full Auto while the two Board Meetings, Industrial Espionage and Opposing Goals, were also delayed to give us time to balance them.

This decided the overall look of the set, but the actual themes are more subtle. Designing new factions is both easy and difficult. It is easy because there is often a lot of source material to draw from. It is hard because you want to make each faction have its own flavour and range of abilities. As such, the factions are shaped as much by what was left out as what was put in.

The MokolÃ© lost three cards that boosted their Rage as well as several defensive cards. While in practice we lost these through happenstance rather than design, I am happy they were left out. The MokolÃ© â€“ both werelizards and weredragons â€“ have a strange dichotomy: they are both one of the most reclusive changing breeds and yet also have the largest Crinos forms of any of them (look at the Crinos form of Sandâ€™s-Last-King!). The MokolÃ© also lost a lot of Totems, although in fairness they were not very exciting. Finally they lost a theme I hoped I could give them, that of Rites. Why? We couldnâ€™t think of many. We stretched ourselves to 4 and two were playtested sufficiently. I hope that this is an area that we can return to, but in the meantime enjoy the fruit of the Rite drive: Burn the Library. It is a new idea for Rage and we would like to see how it goes.

Aside from that, the MokolÃ© are left with a lot of new, quite powerful Characters and some powerful standalone effects to add to the ones they can already use (since Least Wanted they can recruit the Dreamspeaker Mage). It may have happened by serendipity, but the MokolÃ© are in a good place: they are suitably strong already, with good flavour and there is lots of scope to expand on them in the future.

The Ajaba on the other hand really only lost one thing: a combat ability called Iksakku. You will still see a reference to this in the rules but I donâ€™t think that it will reappear in Ahadi. The trouble was that Iksakku was a big deal. There were 7 Combat Actions as well as a couple of Characters and a stick. It would have meant sacrificing space for the faction cards in an already tight set, as well simultaneously trying to test two new or heavily expanded factions. Unfortunately, getting rid of Iksakku also meant losing Kisasi, the Ajaba who initiated the Ahadi. I do see Iksakku returning though (and with it, Kisasi) because we had some good ideas for it (although there may not be room in the Ahadi block). By coincidence, it was mostly the female Ajaba who made it through playtesting and the Iksakku cull (I say coincidence; they were mostly designed and playtested by women!).

We are left with a small faction, but it is stronger than it looks. First of all, they will get cards in other sets as secondary (or tertiary) users. Secondly they have Auspices: technically they are not tied to moon phases, but their spiritual roles are so close to Auspice roles that they were entirely appropriate. Note that female Ajaba are either Ahroun or Ragabash, hence the number of Ragabash present. Thirdly, they do have a couple of nasty cards, as proved by Fenris: Ironjaw, Gnaw, Crushing Jaws and potentially Thirst for Vengeance. They are quite a fun faction, but “fun” doesnâ€™t mean “friendly”.

The final faction in the set is not really a proper faction, more of a way to try and get closer to a full set of Executives. It is unfortunate for Wyrmaphiliacs out there that most of the new factions due to be introduced or expanded in Ahadi are Gaian factions. This makes Rainmakers one of the two sets with minimal Wyrm presence. Yet after the introduction of the first Unbound Character in War Council (along with reclassifying some Enemies and Allies as Unbound Monsters), we give you the second Rogue â€“ Falling Sky. And this segues nicely into a couple of design stories.

—

“Falling-Sky” was the last item on the original file I had sent Fenris. I didnâ€™t send that many Characters in and barely any of them got into the database (although I feel I am getting better at Characters). However, this one got through barely changed:

161. Character Falling-Sky â€“ TB:SG[rev], p53 Rogue Stargazer Ahroun Metis Renown 6 â€“ 6/2/6 Falling-Sky will attack anyone in his attempt to purge the Wyrm from Africa. He gains +2 Rage when fighting opponents with less Gnosis than him. Against the odds, I actually included a character from canon. His description cries out to be a rogue, and although he does not have Kailindo himself, would allow his Wyrm pack access to Tibetan Monastery and maybe Ethereal Wind. TB:SG actually gives wads of fun gifts but I am leaving them for perhaps a Hengeyokai set.

You can even see how far as I was thinking even back then, although I think that is the peril of too many ideas rather than true forward planning. The book gave no details to indicate his Renown or Auspice so I picked a hole I thought felt right. Fenris picked a better hole and we adjusted the stats. Sweet.

When Fenris showed me the artwork for Murgatroyd, she said she was really pleased it got such perfect art because she was my baby. While there are better cards I made, few approach the top down design that created Murgatroyd. I wanted a card that showed the ruthlessness of Pentex, specifically in the Congo which is in reality is also devastated by corporate and administrative greed. The first thing that came was the name, actually the family name of some really lovely family friends. It was the name that inspired me to push her in such a way that she became “my baby”. You really want to be scared of a lady called Murgatroyd.

There are many more design stories I could tell â€“ this was in many ways a very exciting set. There is the tale of how we had our first Weapon Armor, why there isnâ€™t a Realm in the set or why there is a bunny with pointy teeth in my MokolÃ© decks. But these stories will have to wait for another time because I am out of space.

~ Picks-at-Flies

While I hope the facts are correct, this article is inevitably written from my own perspective. I am sure you can cope.