"What am I doing?" You yawned with tiredness lacing into your voice, with the same feeling washing over to your eyes as you rubbed them while looking at a piece of cardboard with colours on top of it, some words and a border line at the edge of the map.
"Oh yea..having the bright idea to create a board game based on the Napoleonic Wars." You groaned as you now see the label 'The Plains of Marengo' at the border of the cardboard field. "And now..I have to create paper decals of different units.." You facepalm as you read through a notebook of what the game consists of..boards of different terrain that will be fought in with a rolling system using a die to decide the weather of that time.
Additionally, another few notes on having a turn-based nation building and diplomacy system while the battles would be real-time with a set of rules to avoid unrealism such as somehow running as fast as a car in a bayonet charge.
"When I said I'd like to educate people about the Napoleonic Wars..I never expected it to be a project that'll take me months to complete." You sigh to yourself as you step away from the chair you were sitting on to stretch your limbs before you hear a knock from the door leading to the building's hallways.
"I wonder who that could be.." You muttered to yourself as you walked towards where the sound was coming from with a dragging motion of your limbs with your arms sore from working on the board.
"Hello?" You called out as you opened the door to find a red-haired teen that was carrying a backpack while also carrying a book or two with her life arm. You look at her face with an eyebrow raised. "You bunkin' off today?"
"School's over." She deadpanned as she took a look at you. "Just woke up?"
"N-no, just working on another project." You weren't sure if you heard her sigh, but you did remember regalling her of his research in the pitch ideas you were creating, moreso Renaissance just to know the history of what led to it and what came after the time period to develop alternate historical scenarios coming from the insertion of Luciano into the era. "Tired?"
"Just tell me when you last ate something." She asks you as she walked into the room from the hallway, you closed it as you answered her.
"I just ate.." You look at the clock and face palmed with a groan. "Since breakfast apparentl-"
You widened your eyes as she pushed you to an empty chair, and gave you a bowl of fruits that you set up on the dining table. She looked at you with narrowed eyes and puffed cheeks, saying only a single word. "Eat."
After your eyes taking a light gander at the room, you could feel your stomach hurting from the lack of food, prompting you to quickly eat the fruits that is in the bowl.
(Scene Change)
"What are you working on?" She asks you with curiosity in her voice and eyes while you return to working on the game pieces such as dice, units, and terrain/weather cards for the battle system to function.
"Trying to find a way for..this monstrosity of complexity to work." You replied back to her as you crunched in the numbers into another instrument you bought, the proclaimed
Scientific Calculator. Something you found interested in after it started selling this year, additionally it is a handheld device compared to the other calculators you found when visiting the electronics store.
"I still can't believe I can't use one at school." She huffs, looking at the calculator in frustration. "I would've been able to complete my work in less time than less efficient mathematical and scientific strategies."
"You can use them at home, yah?" You asked her after having to change the weather terrain to debuff gunpowder using units.
"Mom said to do it the proper way, to build 'good academic habits' by not cheating." She retorted while crossing her arms, leaning back against the chair she was sitting on, and watched you as you kept working on the Marengo board. "I wouldn't be surprised if the world's greatest scientists are already using them in their works."
"They are quite willing to use the quickest and efficient ways to reach their answers." You agreed with her after finishing the last bit of calculations you had to do to make it work in how it was intended. You look back at her while gesturing to the board. "Want to try it out?"
"Sure." She replied, interest peeking through her presence while you gave her the Austrian Units while you had the French Units.
"This one dosen't have a name, but I'm thinking to designate it as: 'La Chanson de la Victoire'." You say to her as you placed the cardboard board between the both of you, nearly filling out the distance as you were facing each other. You place another cardboard with the edge facing the ceiling and tall enough for the both of you to not look at the other's formations, although you are able to only look at each other's eyes despite the block.
"To start this segment of the game I'm making, We start with rolling a dice to see which weather is occurring in this battle." You say to her as you roll the dice..
(1d7
- Clear Skies
- Rain
- Somewhat Cloudy
- Very Cloudy
- Rainstorm
- Fog
- Harsh Heat
Rolled: 5)
"And..a Rainstorm happens." You deadpanned while she giggled in amusement. "Would you agree to not fighting during this weather?" You ask her with dull eyes.
"This general says yes, General Bruce." She smirked at you while you rolled the die again.
(1d7
Clear Skies
Rain
Somewhat Cloudy
Very Cloudy
Rainstorm
Fog
Harsh Heat
Rolled: 3)
"And the weather is somewhat cloudy, not much clear, but not too dark." You speak to her as you begin placing your French Units into formations and positions. "At this turn of the game, you begin placing your units into formations and positions of your liking. To have a bonus to your rolls when firing against the enemy, you place your general near them." You say to her while placing Bonaparte with the Artillery.
"Ready?" You ask her as you can hear ruffling paper from the other side of the board.
"Wait a minute..and done!" She nodded after a moment or two before agreeing with a nod of her head.
"Alright, let it commence!" You speak out with excitement coming out of your voice, removing the board that covered both sides of the battlefield.
"You're using the standard line forward with artillery back formation?" You asked her in surprise, additionally she had some cavalry units being placed at the back of the artillery.
"Yep." She spoke out cheerfully before looking at your placements. "Really? Cavalry Pronged attacks?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I'm impressed right?" You ask her with an excited grin that you could see was replicated by her in front of you.
"Don't think that'll be effective compared to mediaeval armies." She noted, you remembered, she did look through your Renaissance notes about the warfare that existed during the time period. She smirked while you narrowed your eyes at her. "You'll see."
(Rolling outcome of the battle: 1d20
Carrie: Nat!20
Bruce: 8
Carrie Wins the game)
"H-HOW?!" You spoke out in shock as her cavalry units encircled Napoleon as the rest of the army either dead or leaving the battlefield.
"Y-your reaction!" She giggled while letting out a faux-smug smile. "Told you it was a mistake to place cavalry first."
"I'll show you next time!" You promised to her with a smile you can't suppress.
"Although..this roll system you're using for the game is quite interesting..especially when it affects the chances and how the armies fight the other." She places a hand on her chin. "We could..also combine roleplay with it."
"I was thinking of adding a diplomacy and statecraft element to the game." You answered her as she looked at you with interest. "It's quite complex, believe me."
"Can we do..something simple?" She asked out loud as she took out a pen and paper and began writing things on it. "We could make it so the players play their own selves in an adventure made by..the Game Master?" She asks you while your head begins to turn, seeing where you could make the game become.
"Let's make it take place during the Mediaeval era, there are more chances for the players to enjoy running around villages being bards, knights, bandits." You rattle out in excitement as you stand up and join her as the both of you begin creating something new.
"The dice will decide their chances..how about a statistics system to add bonuses to add more value to the stats too?"
"That can work." You muttered as your brain began picking up new ideas that would help out. "If you want, we can also add magic to the entire world."
"Magic? Like Lord of the Rings?" She smiles brightly with excitement and passion burning through them, making you stop and couldn't help but look in awe and warmth filling your entire being.
"Bruce?" She calls you once you realise you were staring at her with nothing in your brain but herself instead, you did also notice at that moment that her cheeks looked quite flustered.
"U-hm.." You coughed away from her as you turned back with your wits and creativity flowing again. "Yes! Like Lord of the Rings..we could add more to the magic system though if you want to."
"Certainly!" She responds with excitement as she writes down what you said onto the piece of paper. She stops while placing the stalk end of the pen near the bottom of her lip as she asks you a question. "If we're adding magic..can we add in other fantasy entities?"
"If we're already adding them, go ahead." You shrugged.
The time passes with the both of you utilising ideas such as adding dragons, dark wizards, dungeons, anything fitting that can be come up with into the idea paper of the roleplay-esque game you two are making ideas of.
"Let's call it, Castles and Dragons?" You ask her as it was nearly the time for Carrie to go back home.
"Dungeons and Dragons?" She proposes with a shrug. "We can decide tomorrow..if you want to."
"S-Sure! If I learned anything today, it is the fact that I love creating new things with you!" You say to her with absolute sincerity and genuine feeling bleeding through and from your declaration.
"I enjoyed the entire time with you!" She replied with slightly flustered cheeks and a smile that replicates yours with the same feelings. "I just wish we could do this all the time.."
"I'll always make some time for you." You replied to her with a promise as the both of you walked towards the building's front door to see her off..after another enthusiastic handshake after a brief hug.
N/A: I didn't expect to create the World's first Roleplay TableTop game after creating a much more advanced and roleplay version of Waterloo with diplomacy and statecraft mechanics based on turns with real-time military battles..Didn't expect for the both of them to actually create a roleplay game idea together based on their interests, Fantasy (Carrie moreso) and History (Bruce moreso).
