Tangent Zero logo TANGENT ZERO

Welcome to Tangent Zero, my little game design and computer graphics studio. Here you can find my rules, 3d graphics, support files, and other nick-nacks of my hobby life.


2022-01-04: I updated the Frozen Thunder rules and removed all the Photobucket links since they're assholes. :-)
2020-02-04: Something that I wrote a while back and recently edited. A framework for using tarot cards for solo play with Amber Diceless or as a handy tool for the GM that needs inspiration.
Four Houses in Amber
2019-07-02: Derp, I forgot to mention that I added It's not my Fortune!, a tarot power game quick start to DriveThruRPG.
2019-04-20: Added Zero Tiles, a random letter tiles generator for games like Spell: the RPG.
2019-04-12: Added Instant NPC to the web toys, a character generator for Uncharted Worlds.
2019-04-07: Added virtual minis for Renegade Legion: Interceptor to Table Top Simulator.
2019-03-19: With the kind permission of Kannik, I'm hosting an updated verion of his classic Renegade Legion fan page.

2019-02-05: Instant Vessel creates random vehicles using the Far Beyond Humanity rules for Uncharted Worlds.
2018-12-12: I updated MapGen to include Jeffrey L. Vandine's Empires of Dawn sector generation logic. EoD is a campaign system for WarWar.  Also added a new web toy, Derelict Gen based on Karl Scheer's Derelict Generator.

2018-12-10: Solo Gamer Appreciation Month in November was a hoot. Played Maschine Zeit, Trollbabe/Barbarian Prince, and did a bunch of work for the the Story Seeds community project. Here are the links to the cleaned versions of the stories.
Maschine Zeit is a sci-fi horror game.
Barbarian Princess is a hybrid of the Trollbabe RPG and the Barbarian Prince micro game.
SGAM Story Seeds are game setting and adventure prompts.

2018-09-06: I've been playing with THREE.JS and PHYSI.JS to learn what they can do for interactive web pages.

MapGen 3D is star map generator for assorted role playing games or strategic war games. Flick Tanks is a quirky shooter puzzle thing.

If you want to download the files and play with them, I created a couple of archives. [Flick Tanks] and [MapGen 3d]

2018-08-08: Zero Dice, added Elder Futhark runes

2018-7-20: I talking with Lunar Gin on G+ about hex grids in Excel and that sparked the creation of a clever macro. Go over to LG's blog and check it out.
Lunchbox RPG

2018-5-23: Four Houses in Amber is my solo framework for playing Amber Diceless. This is a free fan project with no challenge intended for the IP holders.
Four Houses in Amber

2018-4-5: No GM's Sky is now available on DriveThruRPG.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/238659/No-GMs-Sky)
NGS is a solo/GM-less framework for play exploration games with Traveller or the Cepheus Engine.

2018-1-16: Finished this round of the web site overhaul.
Back in November (#SGAM2017), I put several solo gaming projects out on Google Docs.
Shadow Princess is a Magical Fury solo actual play.
GameMaster for MF is a solo tool for running Magical Fury.
McRandom NPC a trait based (system agnostic) NPC generator.
The Zach Bestiary is a compilation of 36 NPCs for your games.

And even earlier, I worked on an idea for GameChef 2017,
Another Border Crossing.
2018-1-12: Here's the link to the original Rewind page which still has some interesting info. REWIND
2018-1-10: Upated Map Gen under the web toys link.
Added the ability to create unpopulated maps for explorers.
2018-1-4: Upated Zero Tarot under the web toys link.
Added the ability to deal rotated cards and a basic card list.

2017-8-22: Things are changing! A new version of Map Gen is in the works and The Trouble with Rose is on DriveThruRPG.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/219160/The-Trouble-with-Rose

2016-11-29: Created a free 3d model just for kicks. In Traveller, the classic game map for a world is an icosahedron (d20) but sometimes you want to see that map as a planet. For you game designer types, here is a copyright free 3d model of a sphere but UV mapped to Traveller style world maps. [trav_world.zip]

Check out Donjon's Fractal World Generator if you want to make your own maps. Select Map Projection: icosahedral and Map Palette: Atlas (or whatever flavor strikes your fancy.)

2016-04-12: Uploaded It's not my Future! to DTRPG. It's a free play-aid from running FAE sci-fi adventues.
http://drivethrurpg.com/product/180168/Its-Not-My-Future

2016-02-11: Reformated the site to make it more mobile friendly.

2016-02-09: Created an official page for Rewind.

2016-01-06: Zero Dice, added d10s to the mix

2015-11-23: Zero Tarot, a fool's story generator
Inspired by a tarot based story game that I heard on a podcast.

2015-07-15: Here are a trio of classic web toys from the old site:
Map Gen, creates space sectors in several styles.
Plot Gen, randomly generates zany plots.
Rocket Calc, number crunchy rocket science.

2015-5-6: Woot! I did a little whip cracking and finally got Frozen Thunder into a presentable shape. Please feel free to check out the rules PDF on the Frozen Thunder page. Any feedback (good, bad, or ugly) is welcome. I've also gotten fairly far on a prototype computer game based on these rules, but it still has a ways to go before it is presentable.

2015-4-22: Yeah, I'm terrible with the updates, but there are good things in the works. Zero Dice has been updated to include Fate and regular dice. I created a one page version of The Trouble with Rose, and I made a 15mm Type S Scout ship for paper crafting. HERE


2014-5-16: Zero Dice, a story dice generator Roll one to six virtual icon dice and make your own story.

2013-12-03: For NaGaDeMon 2013 I wanted to create a solo game. I decided to go with a design inspired by one of my favorite micro-games, Chitin: I. So, please check out HymenopTerra.pdf and my play test of it.

2013-08-07: I created an editor entry for RPGenesis 2013. I was fortunate enough to get permission from John Harper to re-edit Ghost/Echo. You can check out my entry here: GHOST-REVERB.pdf

2013-05-26: Woot! I finished my entry for Game Chef 2013 in time. You can check out my entries here:
Road to Ruin (in docx format - 12,310 kb) Road to Ruin (in Word97 format - 13,971 kb)

2013-05-17: Heh, I guess I should keep the front page more current. Game Chef 2013 is going on and here are some unrelated computer graphics - Todd's Photobucket.

2012-10-12: Uploaded an older project I did for making 3D terrain suitablefor a Space Hulk game if you're into papercraft. [spacehulk_3d.zip]

2012-9-26: Posted TCOM 4.0 first draft rules and an update to TTwR.

2012-4-15: Finished Three Card Coyote and made a page for it.

2012-3-27: Added two after-action reports to the TTwR page.

2012-3-22: Added a few actual play links to the TTwR page.

2012-3-20: Updated The Trouble with Rose page and added the 'essentials' ZIP file for the
ENnies judges. Added the beta rules for Tactical Command and Cluster War. The version 3 rule sets are rather wordy and the version 4 sets are an on going effort to reformat and shorten the rules to make them more concise.

2012-3-19: Added place holder pages for my major projects.

2012-3-16: Zero Hour, site activated!

 


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