You Can Weigh-In On Future Supplements For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"!

It's been several months since my first RPG, Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic went live for sale! Since then we've seen the release of two supplements for it already; Army Men: Threat Assessments (which is full of additional monsters and creatures for your troopers to content with), and Army Men: Medals of Honor (which introduces the Medals System for rewarding players for their deeds done on the field, and introducing additional abilities). And while there's still one more supplement that should be coming out from Azukail Games soon titled Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps, I'm currently loading up my queue with fresh projects.

So I wanted to share some of the things that might be on the horizon for the resinous peoples of the Plastos Federation!

So grab your copy, and check it out for yourself!

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Missions, Armory Updates, and More!

I recently pu up a poll on the Army Men Facebook group (which you should join if you want to stay on top of the game's developments, and make your voices heard!), and I tested the wind a little bit as to which direction folks were hoping to go. However, if you're here reading this update, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below, or to reach out on social media to let your thoughts be known!

Top Option: Quick Play Scenarios

Even in the early stages of development, I knew that Army Men was going to need missions as one of its supporting supplements. Because while all the pieces are there for Game Masters to start running stuff in the world, nothing would flesh it out quite like providing some scenarios to help folks get a feel for play. It's one reason that I made sure the base book came with a starting mission, as well as some suggestions for additional hooks! However, I also know through putting together adventure modules like The Price of Iron (an introductory module about dark fey and strange promises), as well as The Curse of Sapphire Lake (the hate-child of Friday the 13th and Beowulf), adventure modules are one of those things that are a tough sell for the public... not only that, but they take a rather large amount of energy on my part as a creator. A time and energy-intensive project with minimal sales prospects is not a great way to light the fire of enthusiasm.

However, a suggestion that was made (and which folks seemed to support) was the idea of quick play scenarios for the game.

The idea is pretty straightforward. For those who haven't come across this kind of scenario before, it acts as a bare bones setup for an adventure, giving the general tools to the Game Master including maps, important NPCs, point buy layouts for gear (to represent standard, hard, and easier values). Game Masters are given a set of mission parameters and victory conditions, and then the squad is turned loose to see who wins, and who dies. All in all, where a standard adventure module will be anywhere from 7k to 10k words, a quick play scenario will probably only be 2k to 3k words... just the facts, and that's all you need!

To give this a real test run, I'm considering writing between 3 and 5 of these scenarios. That would give you enough to level up your squad (as you are supposed to level every 3 missions), or to level them twice if we include the introductory mission in the base book!

Secondary Option: Expanded Armory

While I did kick around several other options, including more detailed mission modules, guides to the various nations and their cultures, as well as expanded Exploits list, the second-largest amount of votes went to supplements that would expand the armory for players. It makes sense, after all, since the tools players bring onto the battlefield are one of the biggest resources they have to determine their success or failure.

Now, the base book already has a respectable amount of weapons, armor, and extra tools for players to utilize... however, I did have a number of ideas for supplements I could put together. The first would just be something like Army Men: Weapons Locker, with more options to go along with the standard, modern-ish feeling that most of the base book's weapons boast. This would have additional weapons, armor, and most importantly things like expanded grenades, along with the possibility of different ammuntion types that could give players a fresh, but limited, resource that would be appropriate to particular situations.

A second supplement, perhaps something like Army Men: Slings and Arrows, would deal with medieval weaponry and older types of weapons you might still find in the setting (either because the troopers in question are so old they remember when these were standard-issue, or as an extra challenge for missions where modern weaponry isn't as readily available, and players need to go Predator on the vespoids).

A third supplement, which could expand on the Experimental weapon descriptor found in Medals of Honor, would be full of high-tech (though largely untested) equipment options created in the laboratories of the various member nations of the Plastos Federation. In addition to the electric rifle found in that supplement you might find gyrojet weapons, cloaking generators, personal force fields, self-healing materials that repair damage to weapons and armor, or even stranger items!

It's All Up To You!

I've beaten this dead horse a lot recently, but it's something I like to remind people of. When it comes to the books I write, the games I create, and the supplements I work on, I'm not just doing this for my own personal enjoyment. While I like my job, I'm guided by what you, the readers and players out there, actually want to see from me! If there's something you all want to see more of, then that's the thing I'm going to pursue... and if there's something that doesn't have the support, then I can't really afford to spend my time tinkering with it.

So keep that in mind before you weigh in on what you'd like to see when it comes to Army Men. Because if you really do want to see this game expand, and you're looking forward to playing some missions at your own table, raise your voice and let me know! But if this isn't a game you're going to pick up, or if none of these sound like things you're interested in as a gamer, then I don't want to be working off bad data from what my audience wants from me going forward.

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