In February, there was a sea of fresh RPG offerings via Kickstarter. Many of them were Zine Quest 3 products, but some were million dollar RPGs. Now that we’re in March, there’s been a shift from zines to traditional offerings and RPG-related projects like maps. Among those offerings, Arkenforge Tabletop has a new software that offers sci-fi maps and more to players. Nathan Beattie of Arkenforge answered some of questions about their new Kickstarter, The Sci-fi Master’s Toolkit.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Nathan, thanks for reaching out about your project. What are you creating through your Kickstarter campaign for The Sci-fi Master’s Toolkit?
NATHAN BEATTIE (NATHAN): No worries, Egg! We’re building the largest collection of sci-fi mapping and audio assets ever, along with our Master’s Toolkit software, which contains a full and robust set of mapping, audio and campaign management tools.
EGG: Your software allows you to create unique maps and export them?
NATHAN: Yes, that’s correct. We’ll be allowing export for images, video maps, PDFs for printing, and Universal VTT format.
EGG: Does this software offer line of sight or fog of war options?
NATHAN: It does. We’re designed largely for in-person play with our native multi-screen support, so fog of war and line of sight are very important parts of that.
EGG: I don’t want to say that tabletop RPG sci-fi battlemaps don’t exist, but they are aren’t as common as fantasy maps. Why produce sci-fi maps?
NATHAN: We’re producing them BECAUSE they aren’t as common. I enjoy sci-fi RPGs, and it’s near impossible to find good maps for them, let alone having the ability to build maps myself. This is something that sci-fi gamers have been asking for a very long time, but since fantasy and DnD are still the dominant games, most people still cater to fantasy.
EGG: You’re making maps for cyberpunk, deep space, and wasteland settings. Why do those three as opposed to focusing on a single sci-fi subgenre?
NATHAN: Sci-Fi is a very broad category. The three main flavours of sci-fi we’ve identified are Cyberpunk, Space and Post-Apocalyptic, and those are largely reflected in the sci-fi tabletop settings that are popular today.
EGG: There’s an audio component. What does that offer players in terms of software and mood?
NATHAN: Audio is an often underappreciated part of immersion building, especially when it comes to face-to-face games. It can build tension, provide comic relief, provide a greater context to the scene, or just further immerse your players in general.
I’ve run a good number of theatre of mind Call of Cthulhu games using just our Soundscape module with our base fantasy assets, and you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.
In terms of functionality, we like to give complete control to GMs. They can alter the volume of each track in the songs we give, so you can use the one song in a bunch of different ways for different moods. Our ambience system allows you to build up audio soundscapes from individual sound effects with custom timings and effects, and we allow any sound effect to be given a custom hotkey, so you can fire it off whenever it’s needed.
EGG: Is this a subscription service? Will the GM and players each need to buy their own license?
NATHAN: We don’t believe in people paying twice for something they’ve already purchased, so we’re strongly against subscription models. As we’re built for in-person play, our software is currently GM focused, so there’s nothing for players to purchase just yet. We’ll be coming out with aHero’s Toolkit in the future, which will be a free tool for players to use.
EGG: For publishers, are you offering a commercial license?
NATHAN: We are. Any maps made using Arkenforge assets have a full commercial license with attribution. No extra cost.
EGG: Beyond The Sci-fi Master’s Toolkit, what else are you working on?
NATHAN: We’re largely just building our Master’s Toolkit software at the moment. Towards the end of the year, we’re hoping to start work on the Hero’s Toolkit, which will be a free app that players can use to manage their characters and interact directly with the Masters Toolkit software.
EGG: Thanks for talking with me. Where can fans find out more about your work?
NATHAN: Thanks for having me. Fans can head to [our website] to find out more, or jump into our Discord at Discord.gg/Arkenforge.
The Sci-fi Master’s Toolkit from Arkenforge Tabletop
End Date: Wed, March 31 2021 5:49 AM EDT.
“A Sci-fi map builder and audio manager, plus up to four content packs: Sci-Fi Essentials, Cyberpunk, Deep Space, and Wasteland.”
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