sherrifdoggo

[sherrifdoggo]

Project Empire, It's Back!

Also a logo, because it has a logo now.

So I've been missing (here) for a while but with good reason, right now I'm up 20,000 words from the time i posted the image of the word count on my BlueSky.

The objective?, to get it to be testable by the end of the month. Which I seem to finally be on track to hit that deadline and getting this in the waiting embrace of the friends i am going to conscript into testing.

Any who, if you don't know what Project Empire is it's my Urban Fantasy TTRPG set in my pet project lore setting that i can't think of a better name for than the "Staten Island Universe" (don't ask, it's a long story).

The elevator pitch version of it's concept is "a D&D adventure if it was set in Grand Theft Auto". You commit all sorts of crimes across the New York city area and get involved in things that you should not know about, risk tearing apart reality, etc. The usual.

Mechanically, it's like more like GURPS actually since there is no "levels" or "experience points", only Skill Points that you earn by playing, completing quests or by playing your character really well.

Of course you start with a bunch of skill points, so your character isn't completely useless at the beginning, but if you want more, you can get more by giving yourself negative traits that you have to live with now.

Here's a choice selection of a few:

Are you too honest to lie?, are you scared of the number four?, do we need to invite nietzche because your character has a weird fetish?. You can even just make your character gay and get a gay bonus for being so. It's worth 2 whole skill points! (which is not a lot)

Then to arm your character for combat, you can choose from a selection of dozens of guns and melee weapons to turn people into mulch with.

"But guns are not fantasy (and scary) and i have wimpy swinging arms, how do i do my cool attacks without either?"

use magic

There's way more spells than just these four, but these are a pick of the dozen to show off the kinds of spells you have access to.

Finally, there's the "Main" campaign that I'm including with the finished version of this which'll feature a trip across the New York City area where you'll do all of the crimes and make all of the money and then threaten the stability of the universe with said money, killing god in the process.

Hopefully I can actually finish getting the game playable in the next few days, and of course hopefully the testing goes well too.

EDIT: also, for more info that i forgot to write here see this old post that's mildly outdated by now

[sherrifdoggo]

Quick Update: OH NO IT'S WOKE!

AH!

NO!

*pained grunt*

west... falling...

ghbnbh...

fuck

hjhnbnh...

[sherrifdoggo]

The CBRM, or how to resurrect a long dead club to kill it again.

Been mostly not working on the board game recently, trying to take it easy so I don't bore myself of working on it again. But anyways, here's a couple things I have been working on.

In the old Staten Island Universe explanation post I mentioned the CBRM (the Country, Blues & Rock Music club) in passing without going too much in depth on it, or why it's important to the plot.

In short, it's important because a plot important character owns it and is her main motivation through the story.

However, as you may have noticed, there is no such thing as a CBRM in real life. That is because it's based off of the CBGB, a historically important and also long dead club going on 20 years of being shuttered and turned into a clothing store.

So instead of spoiling a whole bunch of the story related to the Staten Island Universe's CBGB, let me ramble on about how hard it is to bring something back to life to kill it again.

First, Bowery (skipping over Staten Island because I did literally no research when I made that version).

I had just come off of making Harrison and i'd learnt to do a little more research when recreating a place, and additionally i'd also learnt to make my own models and textures.

As you can see on the right, the place (both on the inside and outside) looks kind of there, but shuffled around and not at all like the real thing.

The "Pool Table Area" is on the side of the club where the bar'd be, the stage is really close to the door and the "office" and basement stairs are missing.

But how'd I learn all that if I was 3 years old when the club moved to Vegas and then died?

Simple, you scour the internet until you can't find any more information.

These are the main two websites I have been using to get the layout of the place.

And down here is my "mockup" I guess.

To preemptively answer your questions;

It's roblox because I already know how to work the tools and I can use them to make a simple, low detail version of the place quickly. And then after that low detail version is done I can go ahead and make a higher fidelity version in source.

For example: Instead of having a list of things I need (IE, Chairs, Tables, Neon Signs), I can look at the 3D roblox mockup and see exactly what I need. No guessing from the research and images from the above websites, just a simple, clean 3d concept art that i can pull from.

As you can see from me actually putting in effort to research the place looks a whole lot nicer and more accurate (even if it is just a mockup).

I'll keep people posted as I do more things for this part of the project specifically, as well as all the other things i gotta make to get the board game out the door.

[sherrifdoggo]

Mapping New York, (To do crime in it)

New York City is a big place, so if I want to set the board game in it. I need a map.

I could use an actual map of New York, but where's the fun in that?

So, (like back in May but I picked work back up on it it recently) I made a (unfinished) map of New York City (at least lower manhattan for now).

(Don't ask why the colors are reminiscent of a certain crime game)

Anyways, here's the work I've done so far in mapping out the city. I started around Battery Park, so The Financial District got done first, followed by all the neighborhoods surrounding it. Also every road north of East 14th Street is a shitshow grid because I need more time to make that look better.

Here's a couple labeled ones. The final labels are going to be better, and more numerous.

As for the gameplay purpose of the maps in game, I'm probably going to be using them for Car Chases. The distances could probably be measured in pixels, with each pixel being a meter.

In the future the map's going to include Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island as well as parts of New Jersey. Additionally I want to include all of Long Island until the very tip of Montauk (for unspecified story reasons). And If I have some time afterwards, I also want to do some of the parts slightly north of the city, maybe even some of the Catskills if I can.

Though keep in mind, right now i'm trying to get the game feature complete enough to be played by a couple friends that want to test it with me. That means I only work on content things like maps and extra stuff only when I feel like i'm getting bored of the rule writing and paperwork.

(also before you ask if you bothered to read the labeled map, yes 9/11 happened, why wouldnt it have happened, how couldve magic stopped the planes.)

[sherrifdoggo]

Fake Brands, Why?

You may have noticed that every time I make something (board game or not), the brands on the things aren't real. The obvious answer to this would be "oh, sherrif's worried about trademark infringement",

no absolutely not i couldn't care less if coca-cola decided i should die, nor would they probably care if i put them in a free board game that isnt even done yet.

So why the fake brands then?

Because I think they're neat.

To clarify, obviously there's more thought put into it than "I just think they're neat".

If you know me, you know that all my life I've been obsessed with how Rockstar depicts the worlds of their games. They're always so much more realized than even worlds from world class RPGs.

Case and point, the brands in the world. If you exist in real life, you will inevitable be confronted with a brand. If you follow this brand you will notice that you can purchase products from this brand for money.

In real life this doesn't take any effort from god or allah or whoever made this place because a can of pepsi is made by a guy in a factory made by a brand made by a guy, without you noticing. But in a fictitious world, usually things like brands are usually glossed over because it's not worth the time to represent it.

So, in any other game you will see an advertisement on a wall and the advertisement will feature a brand on it. But then, if you dare follow the trail of the advertisement you will come to the sudden realization they do not sell "Brand" soda, but only just Nameless Cola.

This pisses me the fuck off so much dude, it's unbelievable.

So, in the Staten Island Universe. I have strived to make it as close to the capitalist hellscape we live in. That means something is made, then a brand must've made it. It can only be brandless if it's made by hand, or is natural.

But then, there's another issue. Laziness.

Sometimes a developer, a writer or whatever will make a brand for something, but doesn't have the time or patience to make a real brand for it. So the brand for said thing is now just a knock-off brand.

Of course most fictional brands are going to be knock-off brands of real brands, but would you buy a car from Dord Motors?

How about a soda from Cola-Cola?

How would've Cola-Cola taken the world by storm, made billions of dollars and hired those south-american death squads to put down rebellions if they have such a stupid, unmemorable name.

That's where my enjoyment of making fake brands is, it makes the world hundreds of times more believable if you can reasonably stretch your imagination to believe that a brand would've become as successful as is depicted.

Additionally, these fake brands can be tied to real history as much as you want. You can make them have done all the horrible shit they did in real life, and then so. You can invent new horrible things they did in your universe.

Maybe the Fairfield Motor Company didn't just make a rubber colony in Brazil where they forced the locals to live idealistic American lives in the middle of the amazon rainforest. Maybe those locals also practiced a lot of magic, which the CEO of Fairfield didn't like, so he banned the practice of magic in Fairfieldlandia.

Also said ban caused a riot when a child of one of the workers was injured by a venomous snake, necessitating magical intervention in the absence of medical supplies to treat the wound. Which then caused the "Police" to intervene and arrest the magic user for breaking the rules of the colony.

You get what i'm saying now?

No?

I could've just made it alternate history and said that Ford did all of that?

I could've but that wouldn't have been as fun, and I mean. The fake logo looks pretty cool, right?

Anyways here's a couple images of fake brands on things I made for Project Empire already, which I put up on my BlueSky a bit ago.

First, some 12 gauge shotgun shells.

And here's an Alta aPhone

[sherrifdoggo]

Project Empire, What Is It?

I already summarized it earlier today on BlueSky, but I might as well do it over here too.

Project Empire is my Urban Fantasy TTRPG about planning and doing crimes in New York City. Sort of like a whimsical Grand Theft Auto, with some furries thrown into the mix for added flavor.

It's gonna be fully playable offline like any other TTRPG of course, but I also had the idea to do some Gmod integration, like how I did a D&D campaign with custom Garry's Mod maps a real long time ago.

So it will also be playable entirely (or at least mostly) in Garry's Mod.

More details below.

So, first. I started work on it around 2-3 years ago?, I can't remember the exact date and I can't be bothered to look it up right now. The first draft then led to the second draft, then that to the third draft and now i'm possibly refining that third draft into a fourth draft.

The gameplay basics are a mix of D&D and GURPS mechanics blended together to give it the gameplay depth and customizability of GURPS while not requiring you to take 3 turns to get up or to know Underwater Demolition. It's dumbed down GURPS is what i'm saying.

As for story, It takes place in my urban fantasy setting, the Staten Island Universe. A setting that I think I talked about here? (I did).

But the quick and dirty of it is that magic exists and it has always existed. But Magic is confusing, complicated, dangerous and incompatible with integrated circuits and other sensitive electronics.

Due to this magic has certainly played a part in history, but history went down roughly the same path it did in our world.

Why?, Well because I thought it would be cool and also because it gives me space to write really on the nose social commentary. Which all woke writers like myself love to do.

There's also a bunch of magical creatures that waltz around Earth added for fun, and six five more species of intelligent life that coexist with humanity. Dwarves, Elves, Cats, Dragons and Kobolds.

Also the Elves are monkies because I thought that would be a cool and unique elf design. Or at least more unique than pointy ear person #3,596,186.

Lastly, when it's out, it's going to come with a couple campaigns. But one of them is going to be the main one. This one's going to feature the most stakes and the longest playtime.

It'll also feature all of the important characters I've written for the Staten Island Universe's underbelly of New York.

Characters from the guy in my profile picture, a guilty FBI agent, a dwarf hacker, a funny lawyer and the biggest girl failure I've ever written.

I'll probably talk more about them at some point but I want to keep the spoilers to a minimum. The story for the main campaign has been my baby for longer than the project has a existed so I need to keep it closely guarded or it will all be ruined.

anyways thank you for reading all this bullshit, bye

[sherrifdoggo]

I just remembered this place exists so, Update.

So first things first, I haven't been dead, I've just forgotten to update this place 4 projects ago

I've still been posting on my BlueSky, where i've periodically posted progress on the Staten Island Universe TTRPG, Project Empire.

I also forgot to talk about said TTRPG, and what the Staten Island Universe is, so oops.

Anyways to keep this update short, I will be posting on here again. BlueSky has twitter's character limit and I don't like making long ass threads so I will get more into the nitty gritty detail about the work i've been doing to get Project Empire out the door and in your hands. And over there I will post little updates and funnies about things.

Does that sound fair?

No?, Go back to work on Chicago?

Later, it's board game time now bitch.

[sherrifdoggo]

Am I Dead?

Short Answer: No

Long Answer: Physically, no. But in terms of productivity? Perhaps.

Here's a small screenshot of some minor additions I've made to the map.

Been juggling around a bunch of projects recently as well as just playing Fallout: New Vegas for a week for no other reason than I wanted to. That's just how I roll, I don't want to work so I don't. Then I play New Vegas or something.

I'm putting aside some other things to work on the map some more in the next few days, so rest assured that shit will happen. Maybe.

Maybe don't rest so assured I might get bored and wander off again.

[sherrifdoggo]

Rushed Update, With Pictures!

I would've done some more work on the map before i showed some of this work off (like adding some detail props for the fake buildings, more streetlights, more fake buildings, etc.) but i will be indisposed for the next few days for no particular reason that you should not ask about nor should you look at my steam activity for the next few days.

Anyways, Map!

I'll go back to work on it soon as i do feel like it's getting close to that playable state i've been edging my friendgroup with. But I do actually feel like it's near now.

Now if you don't mind i have to disappear for a handful of days bye!

She's holding me hostage.

[sherrifdoggo]

Map Stuff Update

Short post, just wanted to show off the work I've done recently on the On Sung Merchant's Association Building for the map.

It's based off of the Pui Tak Center in Chicago, which in the past was the On Leong Merchant's Association before being seized by the FBI for illegal gambling in the 80's. Now it's just a culture center / christianity thing. Safe to say this map'll return it to it's rightful state as a illegal gambling hall.

Also here's another shot from behind the area of the building, this is the unnamed western road, over it will be a bridge that'll cross this stretch of the Chicago River. On that side of the river'll be some train tracks and Union Station, then around that'll be Cicero.

[sherrifdoggo]

Other Projects: RIYB Card Game

No it's not an actual card game, I have nowhere near the money or connections you need to get an actual card game on store shelves. We just have Tabletop Sim and an overactive imagination.

This is also not a Me project it's a We project. That's why it's the Rats in Your Basement card game and not the sherrifdoggo card game

The gist of it (Right now at least, we're still in the early stages) is that it's a magic style thing where you have to attack the other guy using characters you put down on the battlefield.

Where it gets unique is the characters present and their abilites, as well as Bits, which let you consolidate cards into a group that is more powerful together.

Anyways, Here's a whole thing about it if you're interested:

Section One: Basics

The game, as mentioned above, is mainly about trying to kill the other guy playing. However, the other guy is also trying to kill you using his cards, so you must also defend yourself using your cards.

You can have up to 6 of these character cards on your battlefield and each card you have has an action. An action can be an attack, a healing ability or using an item through that card. To place another card on the battlefield, you also need to use a action from a card. If you don't have a card on your battlefield, you get two cardless actions to place down some cards.

Once you use all of your cards actions, it's the other guy's turn. During the other guy's turn you can still deal damage through your cards via counterattacks. If an attack fails to kill the character card that it attacked, then they deal half of their attack stat back to the attacker.

Right now there's 2 different game types we're workshopping. One has a random deck that you draw and deposit cards from and the other has you go through a deck that you build beforehand.

Oh yeah also if you didn't notice, all the cards are things we like or found funny to include into the card game.

Section Two: Cards

The little guys defending you, or attacking for you are Character Cards.

Each Character card has some Health, a Basic Attack, two Abilities and some tags.

Their Health is how much damage they can take until they have to be taken off the battlefield and put in the corpse pile. Their "ATK" is how much damage their basic attack does and the base damage number for any attacks on their abilities. Their Abilities are other actions they can take, some of them are aggressive and deal damage, others are supportive and do not. They have rules that are described underneath their name. Their Tags determine which other cards they can be combined with in a bit. Other Characters, Items and Settings will have certain rules related to the tags of other cards.

Also there's Character Types. Right now there's 5 types a character can be: Fighter, Support, Magic, Swarm and Punished.

Fighters get an extra action, though that action must deal damage, otherwise they do not get another action this turn. Supports can't do a basic attack, but their non-aggressive abilities are more powerful than other cards. They can also still counter-attack and some of them still have some weaker attacks that they can do as one of their abilities. Magic Characters have very powerful magical abilities, but they only work if magic exists in the current setting placed at the center of the battlefield. Otherwise, they are weaker at best and useless at worst. Swarm Characters are weaker than most other cards, but they become more powerful the more Swarm Characters you have on the battlefield. Doesn't have to be the same card, just another Swarm Character. Punished Characters can be drawn instantly after the card dies, even if it isn't your turn, without using an action. However, you can't have a card and it's punished version out at the same time.

Besides Characters, there's three other types of cards: Items, Settings and Bits

Items are cards you hand to a character at the cost of that item card and the character's action.

We're still working on the types of items, but they'll also have types like how character cards do.

Setting Cards set the scenario of the battlefield. They have special rules that apply to all cards as well as a ruling if magic exists in it or not.

The last card type (which doesn't have or need any art for it) are bits. Bits are not actually cards, but collections of them. You take 3 cards that you already have out and if they all share a tag, they all get a bonus. the bonus depends on whichever tag they all share and if one of the cards dies the bit is broken and you need to find another card to fill the empty spot on the bit.

You can't have more than three cards in a bit, and you can't have less than three cards in a bit. Though you can have different bits at once (even if they share the same tag).

That's basically everything that we've written down for the card game so far. Besides the proposed PVE move where you team up to fight one big guy with a couple cards instead of the usual PVP.

Here's some more cards that I didn't put up there:

Edit: Here's the clean version of all the character cards presented above

[sherrifdoggo]

What Am I Doing Right Now

So, I mostly do updates about my Map on this account but a thing you probably have surmised about me is that I cannot work on one thing at a time for very long.

I always have a couple of projects that I juggle at once and I work on the one that seems the funnest to work on at the time, and sometimes I'll drop a project or pick up one that i'd dropped some time ago.

THIS IS NOT ME SAYING THAT I'M DROPPING THE MAP BTW, NO, NO. In fact I just spent the past two days getting some work done on it.

I just wanted to make this post to let people know that I make other things sometimes and that's ok. In fact, I'm gonna make two more posts about other things I've been working on besides the map.

I'll also periodically update this blog with other things i've been working on instead of just the map.

PS:

I changed the banner to have Jessie's new sprite in it, took the picture while i was testing some stuff on the map.

[sherrifdoggo]

"Yassifying" Jessie

A.k.a. Jessifying

I made a new drawing of Jessie a couple days back that's a lot more accurate to how she looks in ██████████ ████. Featuring: The Shoes she actually wears, The stockings i forgot she was wearing, feathers that look like feathers and a different hairstyle depending on which form she's in.

I also updated all the taunts with new ones, here's a bunch of gifs to compare and contrast the old taunts vs the new ones.

And the Werewolf versions,

I still haven't redone the death sprites, which i need to redo. I also finished a new door model for the garage entrance to the speakeasy. No pictures of it yet because i'm going to save it for a future update.

Hope you enjoyed tonight's dogging.

PS:

punishment

[sherrifdoggo]

WORK IS HAPPENING

Had a little detour where i played too much Cyberpunk but i'm good for now, and back to work.

Here's an exterior picture of the garage area, featuring a nice wall advertisement for Fairfield, an in-universe stand-in for Ford.

things that need doing to finish up the garage: some crates, tables, some new streetlights and a trapdoor for the second speakeasy entrance.

After i get all this done i'll move on to actually working on Chinatown, then after i get some of Chinatown done i'll polish all i have and send a unfinished version to my fellow rats in your basement for testing.

she is here too

[sherrifdoggo]

Addon Updates are out

Since yesterday, i finally got the last model i was missing and pushed out all the updates to three of my old addons. (A little delayed, since i said last weekend, but better late than never.)

Anyways, time to discuss the contents

First The Charms Pack, and yes this technicaly counts as two addons as i have to update both ArcCW and ARC9 versions.

Here's all five of the new charms, pretty sure i showed off at least 3 of them here already, but here's all of them just in case.

Besides that in the Super Stuff Pack you'll find the Mexican Alien as his own little prop, and yes i am aware that someone beat me to it, but i had this model done since last time i showed it so i have to release it.

Besides that, i secretly added two new skins to the button. You can now reference both your favorite 1970's movie and character

At The Same Time!

(as pictured)

Pro-Tip: you can use the buttons with pac3 that's what they're made for.

[sherrifdoggo]

Self Imposed Deadline

I've decided to impose myself a deadline to get the Prarie District done and most of chinatown done by the end of october.

Have some work that was done on the garage but i don't want to post it yet as it still looks a little raw, but rest assured, before october's over i will show more of it.

[sherrifdoggo]

Alright Break Time's Over

Had some fun doing other things, but now it's time to get serious.

Did like three things mostly during the break, those all being updates to Charms Pack #2 that are coming out soon, and a port of one of the new models included with the charms into the Super Stuff Pack.

Here's a little sneak peek into what's been done the past week:

Can't get enough Jessie with just the map Updates?, Well here's two more Jessie Charms to add to the Charms Pack, totaling to 4 (6 If you count stickers too). Also includes a Punished version because, Well...

Uh.

I have no better explanation than "it's a joke that went too far".

Enjoy I Guess.

In other Non-Jessie related news, you might've seen this guy on the internet a couple days back, and here he is again!

Exept this time, he's a source engine prop, rather than a real life prop. He's even set to Cardboard.Large for optimal *DUFF* sound effects when you slam him against a wall. Be careful though, he is a treacherous little shit and will come flying back at you at hypersonic speeds.

He's also a charm because i can't help myself.

Again, enjoy.

I have like, one more idea for a charm and the guy who helps me out with models (Mr. Spectator, no mister i just like to formally introduce people for no reason) says he wants to add one more.

OH YEAH BTW BEFORE I FORGET TO CREDIT HIM, he did make the body of the Mexican Alien, i just made the head, texture and UV unwrap.