Editor’s Note:

I’m proud to introduce our first-ever guest-written article for Inner-Strength Check for Mr. Jason Grubb.

Jason and I met initially via meeting up at Good Games Greensborough for several tabletop-RPG one-shots, specifically in the Alien RPG. An RPG I love enough to have started a series on why it’s a better experience for me as an Alien franchise fan than the TV show - see here for Part I, where I give the show some leverages and positives. Part II Full-Blown-Rant coming soon.

Jason’s a salt-of-the-earth dude IRL. Carrying himself with absolutely no pretence in roleplaying, content creation or any other aspect, it’s honestly refreshing to watch his Getting Tabled show for a sense of sincere normalcy in otherwise maddening, surreal, insane times.

Having met in the Before Times, we’ve stayed in touch long since. In the past year or so, Jase has been keeping those of us on a small Discord server of mates and roleplayers keenly updated on the progress of an upcoming independent tabletop product titled Entropy City.

I’m a big fan of things like Mad Max, Borderlands and video game titles like FUMES, as well as (although not played) the idea behind popular vehicular-mayhem RPG titles such as Gaslands. Entropy City looks set very much to iterate on this theme, with an additive cyberpunk aesthetic to boot. Don’t take my birds’-eye view summary as gospel, though!

See below for a reflection from Jason on the development process, some work-in-progress sneak-peeks, concept art, video trailers and more. I’ve also included links to Getting Tabled, which we’ve previously featured in Dicey News segments in the past.

When I repeat the maxim ‘Support your Local scene’ ad nauseum for our music coverage, that sentiment is just as strongly reinforced for our hobbyist creatives.

Support the independent built largely on self-funding, many extracurricular labour hours and creative freedoms big publishers are increasingly shying away from due to risk-aversion. Be nerd-punk.

Support Your Local Game-Design Nerds!

As Always,

Peace, Love and (Rolling For) Grindcore,

Brady.

Writer: Jason Grubb

Whenever I sit down to write something like this, the first thing my brain decided everyone is asking is “Who the hell are you, and why should we care?”. This is of course silly, but hey - we’re all spicy-brained in our own way right?

So let’s start with the basics…

Hi. I’m Jason. Online I’ve been known as a few things; most of the time these days I am known as Jason “The Bruce” but I’ve also been known as “The 13th" in some circles as well. I co-host a podcast relating to tabletop miniature games called Getting Tabled and I’m also involved with a youtube channel called Toy Reel but I’m not here to discuss that.

I was asked if I’d like to chat about a game I am in the middle of developing called Entropy City.

(Note: Check out Jason’s preview video below, a brief battle-report summary between two in-game factions (courtesy of Getting Tabled on Youtube):

Around 12 years ago, whilst sitting at a painting table at my local gaming store at the time, we were chatting about the games that were out there. I couldn’t help but realise that I’d never seen someone do a miniatures game about motorcycle gangs, an odd choice given that in my head it felt like a perfect match. Although I had a large group of people telling me I should do it myself at the time, my response for a long time was always “yeah, I probably will one day”, but I didn’t feel I knew enough to consider it.

Ultimately, it would be probably 9 years before I eventually listened. I’m a little over 3.5 years in at this point and I have definitely got more to go, but I think we should probably talk a little more about the idea, the solutions and the journey so far.

In even the earliest of days of my idea I knew I wanted to do a couple of things specifically. The first thing you should probably know is that I actually do ride a motorcycle in real life it it had always kind’ve bugged me that motorbikes in games never felt like an actual bike does in real life. Though to be fair most games aren’t trying to make a bikes game but if I was going to.

I should solve that ‘issue’, my instant thought at the time was templated like those found in X-Wing (which was massively popular at the time) but I’d never played the game (still haven’t, by rights). My other idea was something I thought was ground-breaking - what if during the game the police could potentially interfere, as in like NPC’s? I was told this would never work within a miniatures game and that players would find it irritating. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe it was even 12 months later we saw the release of Frostgrave.

The next revelation for me came from my childhood, and tends to be a reference people either remember or they don’t but Road Rage was originally a massive hit on the Mega Drive/Genesis - it even featured on the PS1. It was a racing game but with melee weapons, with a spiritual successor called Road Redemption you can play today that also features some firearms. For many years that was as far as my ideas went purely out of a lack of confidence and experienced, the fact I’d never developed a game left me with a lot of doubt.

(Note: See below for a review of almost two decades of Road Rash titles, courtesy of TechFeast on Youtube):

Every 6-12 months, certain friends would ask about that game I was going to make and 3.5 years ago, I reached a point where I realised I needed to start work on it or I’d end up regretting the ‘what if’.

So that’s how all of this adventure started, and whilst obviously part of this article is the development of the game so far, I feel it’s time to take a step back and talk about the world that the game is based in.

Redemption Falls was once one of the countries’ largest and most popular cities to live in, but that was 10 years ago. Today, Redemption Falls may as well be a warzone. Blocked off from the rest of the country and locked in a decade-long state of martial law, its’ streets are controlled by biker gangs - some defending the city from corruption, others taking advantage of a lawless society.

The turning point, or exact moment things went so wrong spreads over a long period of time. Corruption accusations at the highest levels lead to a new mayor wanting to clean up the city, and an assassination of a newly-elected mayor. From there, accusations of blame lead to all-out warfare, a panicked government rushing the decision to implement martial law so they could get things back under control. Today, the city remains with barely any of its’ trained law enforcement left, and a country that has officially wiped its’ hands of the city and its’ citizens.

Some of the ideas for how the game would work game easily include turning templates, like those we’re used to via games like X-Wing, Gaslands and similar. That said, I wanted to keep my turning templates simple, because I also wanted them to be measured. So I’ve wanted to limit myself to 3 turning templates - a sharp corner, a medium corner and a wide corner - but each of them have the measurements included so that, in theory, you don’t HAVE to make the entire turn.

The other major decision I made a decade ago was that I wanted to use d10’s. Initially this was just because I find d6’s extremely frustrating in games - they don’t roll well without a tower, and they’re very limiting in the range they offer.

Sample Character Art - ‘Damon Khan’ and ‘Agata Xiomar’:

However, the main dice mechanic came to me somewhat randomly one night, whilst I was walking to get some pizza.

That idea was “what if I played Blackjack but with the dice, and if you go over 21 you crash?”.

It was like the sky opened and the light surrounded me, it just kind of felt like it made so much sense for a motorcycle game. I had talked for so many years about wanting to do this, and coming up with an excuse not to so easily… honestly, it has been wonderful to do. I would recommend anyone to start trying to create their own game. Though I would probably suggest not to do something as in-depth as a fully unique miniatures wargame as your first game creation. Try a simple board game or some custom rule scenarios for something to get your feet wet first. Jumping in to the deep-end for my very first game was not the most intelligent of moves.

Having a podcast, even if small, was definitely a good thing. It helped me discover a few things I didn’t want to do very early on. Until I felt I was ready, I didn’t want to take anyone’s money for a product I didn’t feel existed yet, especially because I didn’t want to find myself in over my head with peoples’ money on the line. I will have to step over that line at some point, but I don’t feel I’m quite ready for that yet.

Playtesting started strong - I wanted to be careful with playtesting and start simple. The first round of tests was simple: “Hey, this is my core mechanic, is this fun?”, etc. Every character was the same, I just used 3 bikes per side on a smaller table and it was just a simple test with very positive results. Then the real work began.

If I was being honest, I would have to admit on burning out after my first year. I pushed myself too hard because the easy wins got me super excited, and also because I got many opportunities and wanted to show it was worth it. Within the first few months (and way too early), I had the opportunity to join the “XLBS” show on Beast of War/OnTableTop after Warren and I got talking about creating games in their Discord. I also showed the game off at the Nunawading Wargames Association Games Day, and was asked if I could fill in last minute at PAX in the first year as well. Following PAX 2023, I took probably a good 4-5 months off before getting back into it again.

Sitting here today, I have 4 factions with unique rules of their own and a document that lays out the theories in how I want them to feel on the tabletop, but they’re not all equally tested at this point. To help counteract burnout, Ive been trying to play other things whilst developing. I want to get all of the factions more solidified this year, as well as to continue getting the artwork laid out. I’ve come a long way, but it feels like I have so much more to go. The fact it has been so hard is one of the things I’ve found so rewarding.

(Here’s a sample of Jason’s factional artwork, which gives a nice crossover vibe between Battletech iconography (specifically, the Clans) and biker aesthetic):

Everyone has a game in them. Some people are lucky enough to have a few! You might not have the skills to draw - I certainly don’t - though there are ways around that, and art is not the most important aspect of that project.

Get your ideas down first, start putting the project down, and then look for people with the skills you lack. Look for people that will read your work, suggest things you’ve missed, point out the errors you didn’t notice.

Bring it to a games night, chat with artists.

…Maybe start with a project a tad smaller than I have, though. ;)

Jason “The Bruce” Grubb
Entropy City Creator / Getting Tabled Co-Host