[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

(TFT) TFT and the SCA in your front yard



Some quick notes on the 20 hex, one quarter Battle Map.

All hexes in the Square-hex system are laid-out with hex-sides to the north/south orientation and vertices (corners) aligned east/west. However, I ran into an opportunity this weekend to lay out a quarter sized Battle Map in a friends front yard and have some SCA folks pound on each other over it.
LOT'S of practical info came off of this little effort.

I've laid out the original Melee Battle Map in real life before.
No big deal, but I use the Square-hex Battle Map because I can fit the thing on a single standard page.

This is not meant to be "scientifically accurate" as there is some "slop" in the figures here. The point is, if the argument is about EXACTALLY where in a particular hex something is/happens then the player and GM go to a smaller Scale (the Scale-hex in this instance) to reach agreement.
Each square in a Square-hex at Battle Map Scale is 13 inches by 13 inches.
For all practical intents and purposes when considering a single page, or even a few, this is best looked at as a square foot each square. This slop allows for the thing to be laid-out in somebody's yard without worry of surveying accuracy.
My rope stretching technique is good to an inch when "I" do it.
.
Of course, today I get a call.
"Dude, I've got these cats from the SCA that are staying at the KOA and I told them about your game stuff. I was trying to do the layout like you showed me but the stuff isn't working. HELP!"
.
OooooKay.
To make a long story short, Ken's 150' tape was a Loggers-tape.
No fault to Ken as this took me a stretch of the tape to figure out. as a matter of fact anybody wanna guess what the issue was?
.
Anyone who said that a Loggers-tape is marked in tenths of a foot gets an m&m.
Slop on top of slop working in the same "direction" will throw you off.
So a little math and a sharpie fixed the situation and I got to drink a couple of beers while the fellas finished the layout.
.
An interesting feature of the 20 hex quarter Battle Map is that it requires 20 stakes to define the vertices of the perimeter of the "arena" with an additional 36 stakes to define the additional vertices within the area. 12 of these are on hex-side centers but were they moved to actual hex vertices then the count remains the same. I cut the hexes where I do because the Battle Map becomes geomorphic without fractional hex areas. Ergo, one quarter of a Battle Map is 20 Square-hexes on the dot with the only quarter hexes falling on the corners to make 1 hex.
.
As should be obvious, the lay-out north/south is simpler than that east/west.
Each stake n/s is 52" from the stake directly above or below it.
The pattern e/w from the corners is 32.5", 39", 65" (a full hex-width e/w), 39", and 32.5".
The adjustment is 13" e/w every 26" n/s.
.
Another quick note.
I was trying to focus my efforts on the Regatta that was going down this weekend in Astoria. It turns out that the thing has "devolved" to the point that the tradition that evolved around maritime racing and athletics has morphed into a tourist thing.
The 116th Astoria Regatta had only 2 races and those were small sailboats.
I again proved that I know more about "dead-reckoning" navigation than those that actually sail. The SCA boys laid a TON of info on me, and also seemed to respect what I'm trying for with combat.
It would seem that I've got the important variables sussed.
I learned my "shots" this weekend in a way that I'd not had an "experienced" fighter explain it to me before.
It's still the Calvin and Hobbes strip about the record.
http://www.freewebs.com/calvin-hobbes-org/dadandcalvinsrecordplayer.jpg
Except the sword is using the natural punch motion (HTH) and adds it's rotation in a more natural way than one might expect.
.
Trying to "clock" those guys over 5 second increments was interesting.
That turn breakdown is problematic from the "imaginative" pov IMO.
.
When my bullshit starts equating to real-world data I get STOKED.
Jay may not be completely stupid.
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"